Learning to Fly
by Yuusha no Tamashii
Summary: ShishidoXOC. Skateboarding, guitar, Peter Pan, and Shishido Ryou. Those were a few of her favorite things. She needed someone to tell her that it's not too late, and that growing up is not so bad at all. Some OishiXOC.
1. Step 01

A/N: Hello, everyone who stumbled upon this story! I must warn everyone that the OC is the very epitome of wackiness. However, I must say that fic is important to me because it illustrates some feelings and dilemmas that I, and I'm sure many others, encountered in our younger years. And I must stress that Shishido-kun is one of my favorite characters in PoT, so I will try my hardest to present Shishido-kun in the realest way in this story.

And so, please enjoy!

* * *

**Learning to Fly**

It was only a normal Saturday in March. The weather was getting warmer as the seasons change, and the sun was making more appearance day by day. Endo Natsumi did not expect anything beyond drastic in her ordinary life. She was on her way to a usual social gathering with her parents; being the only daughter of the head of the Endo Corporations, social gatherings were quite frequent in Natsumi's life. However, no one would've ever thought that the driver of their limousine had been drinking not too long ago. No one would've ever thought that there was a taxi right at the corner. No one would've ever thought that this day would be the end of Natsumi's _normal _life.

"March 7th, Saturday, an enormous car crash…"

The news reporter retold the incident today with mild passion in her voice. The man watching the TV, roughly in his seventies, opened his mouth in astonishment. The fingers around the remote control loosened and it dropped onto his just-polished leather shoes.

"Master… Madam… Natsumi-sama…" he murmured frighteningly.

"The limousine was confirmed to belong to the Endo Corporation's president. The taxi carried a thirteen-year-old girl. The limousine driver, the Endo couple, the taxi driver, and the thirteen-year-old girl all died on the scene. The only survivor was the Endo couple's only child."

There was not much mourning for the deaths of this car crash. The Endo family pretty much only had business friends. And even with the death of its president, the Endo Corporation still flourished and was under control. Not many people knew about this incident, and the name 'Endo' was just too common for people to remember.

**Step01: Sudden Death**

"Natsumi-sama! Natsumi-sama!" a deep, strong voice echoed around the mansion. "Natsumi-sama! The limousine is ready!"

"Huh?" The addressed girl cocked an eyebrow at her servant, looking up from her shoe-tying position. "Who told you to get the limousine ready, Isono-san?"

Isono Makoto, currently age seventy-seven, most commonly known as Isono-san, was the head servant of the Endo house. Ever since the death of the master, Isono-san has been taking everything into his own hands. Although he was already at an old age, Isono-san's still as energetic as ever; no other servant in the house could do a better job than him. However, just lately, things were beginning to get a little out of hand.

"Natsumi-sama, surely you're going to attend your first day in school, aren't you?" Isono-san asked.

"Yeah, but I'm not going to ride that thing!"

"Eh?" Isono-san made a confused face. "But, Natsumi-sama, you've always ridden the limousine to school since grade school."

Natsumi seemed a little taken back, but she did not falter for more than a second. "Well… you know, I don't want people to stare at me weirdly. I'll become a staring-stock if I went to school in that thing."

"Oh, I see," Isono-san nodded. "Well then, let me tell Sasaki to prepare a smaller car…"

"No, there's no need to," Natsumi stopped Isono-san from picking up his walky-talky.

"But, Natsumi-sama, how are you getting to school?"

"With this," Natsumi answered expressionlessly as she held up the skateboard that's been beside her the whole time.

Isono-san jumped in shock as if he saw a lion come out of its cage. "No! That _won't do, _Natsumi-sama! That kind of…_transportation_ is far too dangerous for a lady like you! What if you fall? What if you hurt yourself? How will I able to forgive myself?"

Natsumi's face darkened and she glared at Isono-san threateningly. However, just this once, Isono-san wasn't going to back down. "Natsumi-sama, I've simply allowed you freedom for way too many things! I didn't say a word when you wanted to transfer to Rikkai Daigaku Fuzoku, and I still didn't say a word when you suddenly wanted to go to Seishun Gakuen instead! This time, I will _not_ allow you to put yourself in danger!"

"…." Natsumi stared at Isono-san's burst of anger impassively. "I changed to Seishun Gakuen only because Kanagawa is too far…"

"That's not the problem here!" Isono-san exclaimed, "In any case, Natsumi-sama, you are going to go to school on that car, and that's that!"

"Hmm…" Natsumi shrugged at Isono-san's reddening face, and walked out of the door anyway. "Unless you knock me out from behind, I'm not going to ride a car. I'm going to school now, and if I find any of you following me, I'll fire every single one of you. Understand?"

Isono-san sighed like a balloon being poked a hole. "Un…understood, Natsumi-sama."

"Don't be too upset, Isono-san," Natsumi said without looking back, "You were totally cool when you were getting mad back there…"

Isono-san watched his master leave while fighting back the tears in his eyes. _Oh, Natsumi-sama, what has gotten into you? The sweet, polite, high-class Natsumi-sama who always faced everyone and anyone with a gentle smile on her face…_ _is gone! Nowadays Natsumi-sama is like a whole new person. Can the aftermath of a car crash really be this much? _

* * *

Kuru, kuru, kuru. Natsumi casually skateboarded her way towards Seishun Gakuen. It's really not like she had anything against Rikkaidai. When she found out that she was going to transfer to Rikkaidai, the thought of the distance completely turned her down. She was not going to skateboard all the way to Kanagawa every morning anytime soon.

"_A prestigious student like Natsumi-sama should go to a private school like Rikkaidai!" _She remember Isono-san exclaiming, _"It's bad enough that Natsumi-sama wants to transfer out of Hyoutei Gakuen, and now you want to go to Seishun Gakuen? And it was Natsumi-sama's choice to go to Rikkaidai in the beginning!"_

In all honesty, Natsumi only wanted to go to the closest school. And she only decided to transfer in the beginning of April, which is the start of a new term, and she only missed a week of school because she was in the hospital for car crash injuries. She didn't miss out on much. She doubted that she made many friends in her first year in Hyoutei Gakuen anyway.

"Natsumi-chan!"

Natsumi turned her head toward the feminine voice that called out her name. The girl had sandy-colored hair that had small curls, and her thin brows furrowed in anger as she approached Natsumi.

Natsumi observed the girl up and down, noticing their different uniforms.

"Natsumi-chan, don't you dare think that you can just switch schools out of nowhere without telling any of us!" the girl fired at Natsumi once she came into five-feet-range of Natsumi. "Transfer back to Hyoutei right now! Why would you want to go to Seigaku anyway?"

Natsumi stared at the feisty girl blankly. "Who are you?"

The young girl blinked, but regained her angry expression instantly. "Endo Natsumi! What is wrong with you? Don't tell me that you hit your head during that car accident, because I didn't hear anything about that!"

"Oh… of course not," Natsumi caught the sight of a name tag hanging at the zipper of the girl's schoolbag, "um… Akutagawa Chizu…"

The girl named Akutagawa Chizu raised an eyebrow, and then looked down at Natsumi's feet. "Oh my goodness! What is _that_, Natsumi-chan?"

Natsumi followed Chizu's gaze down to her feet. "Oh, this?" She got off her skateboard and held it up in front of her. Leaning in close to Chizu, Natsumi whispered in a low voice. "This is a skateboard. It's a specially designed plywood board with poly urethane coating used for skateboarding. Which is…"

Chizu stepped back and looked at Natsumi in bewilderment. "Stop!—Natsumi-chan, what are you talking about? Anyone can tell it's a skateboard! I was asking you why you have it!"

"Oh," Natsumi straightened up and puckered her lips. "You already know. How boring…"

Chizu eyed Natsumi cautiously. "Natsumi-chan, are you feeling okay? Don't tell me that… that _thing_ with Atobe-senpai is still bothering you…"

_Who's Atobe? What thing?_

"I'm gonna be late for school," Natsumi said, waving her watch, "See ya later!"

"You wouldn't be late if you still went to Hyoutei!"

Chizu's voice faded in the background as Natsumi continued to skate toward Seigaku. By the time that Natsumi arrived at school, she had already completely thrown that incident and the name Akutagawa Chizu in the back of her head. She wasn't one that took many things seriously, after all.

* * *

Seigaku wasn't the biggest, fanciest school there is in Tokyo; however, it definitely has a good size, the greens, and the good views. Not only that, even the school uniforms kept her interest. Instead of the fancy uniforms that schools try to attract students with, Seigaku keeps the simple sailor uniform for girls, and even boys wear the all-black uniform that started all the way back in the 50s. When Natsumi first saw this, she wanted to shout "Ah! This is the hot-blooded youth!" Natsumi nodded to herself as to give the school her approval. She was following behind her new homeroom teacher to her new class—Year 2 Class B, and suddenly they stopped in front of a door. The homeroom teacher—Koike-sensei—turned around to smile at Natsumi warmly.

"Don't be nervous, Endo-kun, I'll introduce you to the class first and then you can introduce yourself," Koike-sensei said nicely.

"Oh," Natsumi replied simply.

The two of them entered the classroom of 2-7, and a wave of murmurs was created the second that Natsumi made her appearance. Despite her somewhat detached expression, Natsumi was considered to be very good-looking among her peers. And it seems like her new classmates don't disagree with that at all. However, to these student's comments, Natsumi only yawned without any covering.

"All right class, this is Endo Natsumi! She is going to be our new classmate!" Koike-sensei announced enthusiastically. "Endo -kun, why don't you introduce yourself?"

"Oh," Natsumi nodded as she turned to the blackboard behind her. Picking up a white chalk, she scribbled something on the board. Four characters—遠藤夏海-seemingly the characters of her name? Her classmates sweat-dropped at the ugly, no, non-legible handwriting; _her handwriting doesn't suit her pretty face, does it? _

"Um…" Koike-sensei coughed awkwardly, seeing that Natsumi had nothing to say. "Well, it's natural to be shy on your first day, Endo-kun! Now, if you would go take a seat in that empty spot next to Momoshiro-kun…"

Natsumi's eyes followed Koike-sensei's finger to a desk near the window. The boy sitting next to it suddenly raised his hand. "Over here!" he said in a bright voice.

_Hm. This is youth._ Natsumi nodded to herself as she made her way toward her new seat.

"Hi there! My name is Momoshiro Takeshi! You can just call me Momo!" Momoshiro, known for his friendly personality, introduced himself to her right away.

"Oh," Natsumi only nodded before plopping down on her desk. Faint snoring could be heard along with the smooth heaving of her back. Momoshiro looked at the sleeping girl awkwardly; did he do something wrong?

"Um…" the teacher scratched his head as he smiled weakly. "Endo-kun has been in the hospital for the last week, so maybe her condition is still a little shaky. Please let her take it easy, Momoshiro-kun."

* * *

Natsumi slept all the way until lunch break. In fact, she didn't even wake up to the bell; instead, she was woken up by Momoshiro. Natsumi half-glared at the boy who just woke her up, but the boy could not sense any of the negative atmosphere around Natsumi. Momoshiro waited for Natsumi to acknowledge him with some words, but decided to go ahead and speak since Natsumi didn't seem like she would open her mouth anytime soon.

"Hey, Endo! It's lunch time!" Natsumi raised her eyebrow at Momoshiro's obvious exclamation. "Wanna eat together?"

"Oh," Natsumi looked down at her bag and said, "I didn't bring lunch."

"Really? That's fine! I always buy it at the vendor too!" said Momoshiro enthusiastically. "I'll take you to the vendor, then! Come on, before the line gets long!"

"Oh."

Natsumi followed behind Momoshiro swiftly. People in the corridor looked at the pair pass by strangely; Natsumi was taking such light steps, yet she was right behind Momoshiro, who was hurrying towards the vendor. Luckily for the two of them, there was not a line at the vendor.

"What do you want to eat, Endo?" asked Momoshiro.

Almost instantly, Natsumi replied, "the super extra spicy curry bread."

"Eh?" Momoshiro was dumbfounded. "Is the... 'super extra' part really needed?"

"Yes," Natsumi said strongly, handing Momoshiro her money.

Momoshiro smiled at her and pushed her money away. "It's okay, Endo! Since it's your first day, the meal's on me!"

"Oh," Natsumi seemed a little taken back at Momoshiro's friendliness, but she accepted and put the money back into her pocket. "Thanks, Momo-kun!"

Momoshiro was dumbfounded again. Natsumi had patted him on the back as a friendly gesture after putting her money away, but it wasn't a gesture that he'd normally seen girls do. Especially for a person like Natsumi, who had big round eyes and wavy long hair which was typical for rich spoiled girls. Not only that, Momoshiro was surprised that Natsumi called him 'Momo-kun'. He didn't think that she'd heard him in the classroom, since she fell asleep so quickly. Nonetheless, Momoshiro still went on to buy the food.

When Momoshiro finished buying the food, he found Natsumi already sitting down under a nearby tree, staring off into space.

"Here you go!" Momoshiro handed the curry bread to Natsumi, keeping 5 more bread to himself.

"Thanks," Natsumi took the bread and started to eat right away.

"No problem! I, Momoshiro Takeshi, am known for my friendliness, after all! Hahaha!"

"That's very nice for you."

"You don't need to compliment me!" Momoshiro took a bite of his own food and turned to Natsumi. And choked. "Endo! You're already done?"

"Mhm," Natsumi replied briefly as she folded up the plastic wrapping. "I like to eat fast. I'm very time-efficient."

_You don't seem so when you're sleeping in class,_ Momoshiro thought.

"Oi! Momo!"

Momoshiro and Natsumi looked toward the energetic voice that called out Momoshiro's name. There was a red-headed boy that half-skipped toward them, and behind him walked another boy who looked more mature. Judging by Momoshiro's smile, they were good friends.

"Kikumaru-senpai! Oishi-senpai!" Momoshiro shouted back at his seniors.

The red-headed boy was first to reach Momoshiro, and with a sly smile, he nudged Momoshiro's side. "Hey, hey! When did you get a cute girlfriend, nya?"

"Eiji-senpai…" before Momoshiro could open his mouth to deny it, Natsumi stole his chance.

"I'm not his girlfriend."

"Eh?" the senior named Eiji was a little dumbfounded at Natsumi's straightforward denial.

"Eiji!" the other boy finally caught up to his partner. He pushed Eiji's head down in a bowing gesture. "I told you not to assume things like that! It's rude!" He looked at Natsumi apologetically. "Sorry for the rudeness! I'm Oishi Shuichirou, a third year."

Natsumi stared at Oishi's face for a long time, but didn't say a word.

Momoshiro, sensing some awkwardness rising, decided to introduce his friend. "Oishi-senpai, Eiji-senpai, this is Endo Natsumi. She just transferred from Hyoutei."

"Eh? A new student?" Kikumaru perked up from under Oishi's hand. "My name is Kikumaru Eiji, nya! I'm also a third ye—"

"Oishi-senpai."

Kikumaru pulled to a quick stop as Natsumi suddenly spoke. Momoshiro turned to Natsumi, and Oishi, being the one who's suddenly addressed, straightened his back toward the young girl.

"Y…yes?"

"Your hair…" Natsumi said, her round eyes not leaving Oishi's face, making him a little nervous. "Do you use a citrus-scented shampoo?"

"Eh?" Oishi was completely thrown off by Natsumi's question. "Um… yes, I think so."

"I see," Natsumi nodded, and suddenly reached toward Oishi's face. Oishi, once again shocked by Natsumi's sudden action, almost backed away. However, Natsumi was not reaching for Oishi's face after all, instead, her hand swooshed over Oishi's shoulder and grabbed something. Natsumi's opened her hand again, and there it was—a centipede sort of worm.

"A… a bug?" the three boys stared at the squirming creature in her hands, sweat-drops falling from the side of their face.

"This little thing was mislead. This is better for him," Natsumi said as she narrowed her eyes, and then threw it into a bush nearby. "It would be sad if he spent the whole day climbing up Oishi-senpai's shoulder, and end up with nothing to eat."

* * *

"Endo! I'm going to tennis practice, so I'll see you tomorrow!" Momoshiro said to Natsumi as the after school bell rang.

"Oh."

When Momoshiro turned to look at Natsumi, she already had everything packed up and ready to leave. He wasn't surprised, though, because after this whole day he'd already figured out that Natsumi wasn't exactly the ordinary girls he'd usually meet.

Momoshiro watched Natsumi leave the classroom without saying "good-bye" to anybody, not even him. He'd wanted to laugh, because he was supposed to leave first, but she beat him to it. Natsumi was definitely not what he thought she was. At first look, she had the appearance of those shy girls that lived in "greenhouses" all their lives. But looking at the way Natsumi walked away, with one hand stuck in her uniform pocket and the other hand flinging her backpack over her shoulder, she was more of a tomboy than what he'd imagine.

_It didn't suit Natsumi's appearance. Not at all._

In fact, Natsumi had wanted to cut her hair shorter for a long time now. If it weren't for Isono-san saying, "Natsumi-sama, weren't you so proud of the wavy brown hair that you got from your mother?" she wouldn't have kept the inconvenient long hair.

_This hair gets into my face all the time!_ Natsumi thought grudgingly as she skateboarded her way home, the wind blowing her hair in front of her face. Natsumi decided, for sure this time, that she would cut it no matter what Isono-san says.

It didn't take a long time for Natsumi to reach home. Sasaki-san, a man his mid-thirties, stood outside of Endo Manor's front gate with a slightly bored expression. Just slightly. Being a bodyguard and all, he needed a stoic expression, but what was he to do when he was told not to do his job for the whole day?

"Ah! Natsumi-sama, welcome home," Sasaki-san bowed at Natsumi as she arrived home.

"Don't be so tense, Sasaki-san," Natsumi barely looked at Sasaki-san as she passed him by. "Go get a massage or you'll age quicker than you think!"

"Na…Natsumi-sama!" Sasaki-san, trying to ignore the sudden change of attitude in his master, stumbled over his words as he called his master's name. "I think you should know… Atobe-sama has come over to visit you!"

"Oh," Natsumi replied briefly as she entered the house. _Atobe… that name sounds oddly familiar._

Once Natsumi stepped into the house, before she could even take a breather, Isono-san rushed over to Natsumi and urged her into the living room. "You must hurry, Natsumi-sama! Atobe-sama has been waiting for you for five minutes! Oh, if only Sasaki picked you up at school, you wouldn't be—"

"Easy, easy, Isono-san," Natsumi frowned at the frantic old man. _First of all, I don't even know this Atobe person!_

But as Natsumi's eyes made their way to the inside of the living room, they lit up immediately. And at that, Isono-san rejoiced, thinking that Natsumi has returned to her normal self at the sight of the boy sitting at the leather seat with too much majesty for a mere middle school student. Natsumi advanced toward the boy with large strides, and he lifted his head at the sound of her footsteps.

"You're finally here, Endo," was what Atobe Keigo wanted to say, but before he could let the words out of his lips, the girl had walked past him to the bulky boy next to him.

"Good afternoon, Atobe-sama!" Natsumi said with strange excitement in her eyes, while holding up Kabaji Munehiro's hand in hers. "I never thought I'd get to meet someone famous in my life!"

* * *

TBC.

* * *

A/N: Please do not doubt, this is indeed a ShishidoXOC fic. Although Shishido-kun won't make his appearance until a few chapters later!


	2. Step 02

**Learning to Fly**

Split personality, scientifically referred to as 'Dissociative Identity Disorder', is used to describe a person who displays multiple distinct personalities, or alter egos. The theory of the causes of this disorder is often linked to severe trauma or overwhelming stress. However, most people believe that this diagnosis does not actually exist. Atobe Keigo was one of them, but he had to question himself this time, when he saw Endo Natsumi for the first time in a month.

"Endo, you…" it's rare for the great Atobe, captain of the Hyoutei tennis team, to be speechless like this, but he had to admit that Natsumi's sudden action indeed shocked him.

Atobe has known Natsumi for almost all his life, due to the status of their parents, and even though he did not have much interest in the girl, he still knew her personality better than most people. And Natsumi, the fragile and princess-like young girl, who is as shy as a squirrel, would even blush and stutter when any guy came close. For that kind of girl to suddenly grasp Kabaji's hands, it was all too weird. Even if Natsumi had amnesia after the car crash, the sudden change in personality was not likely to happen.

"Na…Natsumi-sama!" Isono-san immediately panicked as he saw the disapproving look on Atobe's face. "What are you doing, Natsumi-sama? That is just rude to ignore Atobe-sama like that!"

"Hm?" Natsumi looked back at Isono-san and looked at Atobe, realizing that she'd made a mistake due to her excitement. "Don't be so worked up about this, Isono-san! That was just a friendly joke since I hadn't seen Atobe-sama in so long!"

_Joke? _Atobe raised an eyebrow. _The Endo I knew never made jokes._

"Besides," Natsumi continued, "I've always been a fan of wrestling. It's not an everyday thing to see a wrestler in person!"

**Step02: What You'd Call, Smoke and Mirrors**

Isono Makoto, most commonly known as Isono-san, has been through countless crisis and situations throughout his seventy-seven years of life. Isono-san had came through it all, no doubt, with his determination and preservation. By the young age of twenty, he had already acquired the nickname of "Tetsunin" (Man of Steel). It seemed as if even a landslide couldn't bring him down. However, his steel began to crumble down, ever since his young master got into the dreadful car accident.

"Natsumi-sama… you… that's…" Isono-san stuttered, mostly from his speechlessness toward Natsumi's actions.

_Joking about Atobe-sama is already bad enough, and now even Kabaji-kun?_

"Ahem," Atobe coughed to get the attention back to him, and also to shake himself away from the mess that displayed in front of him. "Endo… you seem to be in a good enough mood to be joking around."

Natsumi raised an eyebrow. "Of course. The world is gloomy enough; if I don't make jokes, I won't be able to stand it."

"Oh?" Atobe was starting to lose his patience. "Then it must be a joke when you suddenly decided to transfer to Seigaku, leaving your tennis club manager's duties behind without telling one, eh?"

Natsumi was taken back for just a second. She opened her mouth slightly, and closed it. And then opened it again, "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Endo, if you're running away just because of what I said to you, then a worse person than I thought you were, not graceful at all," Atobe said, without giving Natsumi any time to think. "Now, I don't really care if you want to quit your position, because there are tons of people who want it. But if you're really going to quit, you're going to tell coach yourself, understand?"

Natsumi stared at Atobe open-mouthed. That was clearly too much information for her to take in all at once.

However, taking the silence as a yes, Atobe stood from the couch and headed for the door. "Well then, if you've understood, I expect to see you tomorrow at Hyotei during practice. Let's go, Kabaji!"

"Ussu!"

With that said, the two boys left the Endo estate. Natsumi stared at the place that they last stood, deep in thought.

"Natsumi-sama…" Isono-san called softly, worried about his master's quietness. "Are you okay?"

"I was just thinking…" Natsumi said slowly. "…that Kabaji-kun… has wonderful biceps…"

"…"

**

* * *

**

Natsumi was not used to getting yelled at, naturally, because her parents were always too busy to pay that much attention to her. That, and they expected her to be responsible for her own actions. So when Atobe gave Natsumi a mouthful, she couldn't let what he said sink in to heart. Besides, Natsumi wasn't the kind that let anything small bother her. After a night of sleep, Natsumi had already forgotten about Atobe, and whatever he said about quitting the tennis club. Maybe not Kabaji, the boy wrestler with wonderful biceps.

"Good morning, Endo!" Momoshiro greeted Natsumi as he entered the classroom. However, she had earphones plugged into her ears and didn't hear him. Moving closer to Natsumi, Momoshiro waved his hand in front of the girl's face.

Natsumi didn't flinch or blink. All she did was look at Momoshiro and removed her earphones. "Good morning, Momo-kun."

Momoshiro had to admit that it surprised him when he got a response from her. But he was happy, nonetheless, that she was more sociable than he'd thought. Taking the chance that she was still paying attention to him, Momoshiro pulled a piece of paper from his bag that the teacher entrusted to him.

"Here you go, Endo," Momoshiro handed it to Natsumi. "Koike-sensei wants you to fill this out and turn it in to whatever club you choose by the end of this week."

Natsumi looked at the paper that read "New Club Member Registration Form." Flipping it over, she glanced over the list of clubs that she could choose from.

"What club are you going to choose, Endo?"

Natsumi shrugged. "Isn't there a club with 'extreme sports' or some sort?"

"Extreme sports?" Momoshiro repeated, and immediately eyed Natsumi's skateboard that rested by the wall. "Oh! You mean skateboarding, cycling, mountain biking, that type of sports?"

"Yes, there are many kinds," Natsumi said through a yawn, and flipped the paper over again. "But skateboarding is the one I'm serious with. Although I do want to try out cycling someday."

Momoshiro stared at Natsumi in amazement. It was only the second day of knowing her, and she'd proved herself out of the norm once again. For a girl with Natsumi's appearance, no one would've expected that kind of dangerous sport interest to come from her. Even though he did notice her skateboard when she first came to this school, he didn't think much of it until now. There are definitely many interesting newcomers this year. Including that new cocky freshman who joined the tennis club a few days ago.

Natsumi, on the other hand, looked over the paper again, and put it down. Her eyes lingered on one line. "The tennis club… has a lot of members."

Hearing about the tennis club, Momoshiro immediately whipped up a confident smile. "Of course! The Seigaku tennis team is only the best in the nation! And I'm one of the regulars!"

Natsumi glanced at Momoshiro briefly and commented, "Good for you. It's nice to be passionate about something useful."

Momoshiro was at a loss of words again.

"Endo… I hope this doesn't offend you, but you're really not the type of girl I thought you were."

This made Natsumi look at Momoshiro with interest. "How so?"

"Well, upon first seeing you, I think most people thought of you as one of those normal girls around school. But after knowing you a little bit I thought you were… well, strange." Momoshiro said, racking his brain for the right words to say. Although he wasn't always the brightest at this field. "And after talking with you more… you seem different again. Like you have something on your mind all the time, and you're not just acting weird for the fun of it."

Natsumi looked upward and remained silent for a bit, as if to register all that Momoshiro had just said. "Well, of course I would have a load on my mind, just like everyone else. The world is too full with unexpected things and things happen before you can even think."

"Ah," Momoshiro suddenly remembered about the day before, when Momoshiro asked his senior teammate Inui Sadaharu if he knew anything about the new transfer student. Inui somehow knew about Natsumi's family, and the tragic car accident that they've been through. He realized that he might've triggered a bad memory in Natsumi. "Sorry, Endo, I didn't mean to—"

"It's as ridiculous as being knocked to death by a falling flower vase, or surviving after a shark has bitten half of your neck off…"

"Eh?"

"I don't think you would believe it either… something as absurd as a death god, or people who would take a bullet for a complete stranger…"

"Endo? What are you…"

"So what I'm saying is…" Natsumi looked up at Momoshiro with a serious expression. "Life… is all about faith, trust, and pixie dust."

**

* * *

**

Oishi Shuichirou, currently a third year at Seishun Gakuen, the vice captain of the boys tennis team. His favorite food includes pear, clam soup, and his favorite color, white. His family members include his father, mother, and younger sister. His most renowned skill, the Moon Volley. Besides these ordinary points that define Oishi Shuichirou, he was the infamous "Mother of Seigaku".

Oishi had always been good with taking care of people. You can see that through his way of taming his double partner Kikumaru Eiji, along with other problematic underclassmen in the tennis club. You can even tell by how delicately he takes care of his pet fish.

In other words, you can say that Oishi was probably one of the most responsible teenager around this era. With a character like his, Oishi has never, ever received any kind of negativity from adults or peers.

But today was a strange day. Oishi was the last one, again, to leave school, after making sure the storeroom of the tennis was nice and neat, and locking it. Taking the everyday route home, passing a neighborhood park, everything was very ordinary for Oishi, until he saw an oddly familiar girl near the stairs that lead to the park.

It was Endo Natsumi. Oishi remembered the girl's name because of the previous day's bizarre meeting with her. Oishi had thought that most girls would either scream or back away when they saw worms or bugs near them. But Natsumi did neither of those, and even picked it up with her bare hand. Oishi wasn't trying to call Natsumi weird, however, it was just that the way that they met was more memorable than most of his other encounters.

But what Natsumi did next surely surprised Oishi even more. Dropping the skateboard that she held in her hand beside her, Natsumi swiftly boarded it and kicked. She was going at a rapid speed; so fast that Oishi became a bit worried. And when the girl reached the edge of the staircase, she stooped on the end of her board and this action lifted her off the ground. Everything happened very fast and it made Oishi gasp inwardly in astonishment—the middle of Natsumi's skateboard landed on the railing of the staircase, making a loud sound, and the girl slid down the metal bar. However, contradicting with Oishi's expectations, the girl did not make it all the way down the staircase.

"Endo!"

Oishi darted down the stairs toward the underclassman after watching her lose her footing, and tumbled down with a loud thud, and her skateboard had flown several feet away. The girl struggled to get up; and when Oishi arrived next to her, he noticed that her knee had a huge scratch and blood was oozing out.

"Are you okay?" Oishi asked as he put his arms around the girl's shoulders, attempting to pull her up.

Oishi looked closely. A small marble of tear was gathering at the corner of the girl's eye. _Oh no,_ Oishi began to feel nervous. He's had his share of dealing with troublemakers, but he's never dealt with crying girls before.

But to much of Oishi's surprise, the girl only frowned and muttered something like, "Damn… this body is too light and I'm still not used to it…"

Despite how strange Natsumi's utterance was, Oishi focused on her wounds. "Endo, you need to disinfect this wound. There's a small clinic not too far from here, I'll take you—"

Natsumi finally looked at Oishi, but her expression was dark and full of murderous intent. "You… if you tell anyone about what you saw today… _I will kill you._"

"Eh?"

Oishi loosened his grip on the girl's shoulders at her words. The girl shot him another warning look before picking up her skateboard and limped away.

Oishi was shocked. Not at the rude and unruly way that she talked to him, but at how sincere she sounded when she threatened to kill him.

**

* * *

**

"Welcome home, Natsumi-sa—Oh my goodness! What happened to your knee, Natsumi-sama?"

"A bee stung me. Isono-san, please send someone to a skateboard shop and get me 87A, 95A, 99A, and 101A wheels—"

"That's not important right now! What's important is that your knee—"

"Isono-san, since when did you get to decide what's important around here?"

"…Right. Sasaki, go get what Natsumi-sama just asked for…"

"Yes, sir."

"Thank you, Isono-san, Sasaki-san."

"Now back to the important topic!" Isono-san settled Natsumi down on a couch with a emergency first-aid kit suddenly at his side. "We have to make sure that your knee is presentable by tomorrow! Oh, to think that Natsumi-sama would have to walk out into public with a scar on her knee… it pains my heart!"

"Why do I have to go out tomorrow? It's going to be a Saturday."

"Natsumi-sama, you didn't go to Hyotei after school today, and Atobe-sama is outraged!" Isono-san said with fear in his voice. "Atobe-sama left you a message! He said if you don't show up at weekend practice tomorrow, he's going to come pick you up personally!"

"Tch. What does that have to do with my knee having a scar or not?"

"To protect Natsumi-sama from being hurt by Atobe-sama again, and to ensure the happy ending between Natsumi-sama and Atobe-sama… I, Isono Makoto, will do anything to help Natsumi-sama!"

"Isono-san…" Natsumi frowned at her old butler.

"…Yes, Natsumi-sama?" Isono-san answered carefully, realizing that he might've said too much.

"Who is this Atobe that you keep talking about?"

**

* * *

**

TBC.

A/N: And our main character Shishido-kun will finally make his appearance in the next chapter! Thanks for reading, please review!


	3. Step 03

**Learning to Fly**

"Seeing is believing." This is the main reason of controversies over things like the existence of ghosts, religion, aliens, and other examples of the kind. People usually wouldn't believe something that hasn't been proven. But there are a group of people who will believe without seeing. They are the people who believe the existence of things like angels, Santa Claus, magic, and Neverland. Indeed, they are what we call "children."

"I am a death god. I'm here to grant you a second chance at life!"

"…Oh."

"…Shouldn't you be more surprised? Most people freak out when they see me."

_Shrug._ "It's not like I thought you didn't exist. I'm still confused about what just happened, and why I'm floating around while my body is still down there. I'm actually glad that you're here to explain things to me."

"…Well, I should've expected that from someone who still believes in fairies…"

"Fairies exist."

"…Anyway," the death god cleared his throat. "The reason why you're floating is that… you're dead. You were killed in that car accident, as you can see below you. But don't worry! The young lady in the other car who survived wished to give you the chance to live instead!"

"…Why?"

"She felt sorry that the irresponsible driver that her family hired had to take your life away. She wants to make it up to you this way."

"…I don't believe it."

"She doesn't have the will to live on; she's been like this for a while now," said the death god, shaking his head in disapproval. "It's been decided. You are going to take her body and live on, since your own body is too damaged for use!"

"Wait! How come you didn't ask for my opinion before making that decision?"

"Well, she looked like such a nice girl, so I couldn't refuse!"

"…You perverted old man…"

"What did you say?"

"Nothing."

"All right, then! Live a good life as Endo Natsumi!" said the death god as he began to disappear. "I'll be checking up on ya!"

**Step03: What You'd Call: Love at First Sight**

"Natsumi-sama! Please hurry! The limousine is already prepared!"

"Limousine?" Natsumi repeated as she laced her shoes. "Who said I was going to ride in a limousine?"

"But, Natsumi-sama, you're going to visit Hyote—what are you wearing?"

Natsumi looked up at Isono-san questioningly at his hysterical expression. Isono-san looked down at the girl's attire. Red pullover sweater and straight jeans. What was wrong about it?

"What happened to your dresses, Natsumi-sama?" Isono-san asked as if he'd just witnessed magic. He'd never seen this kind of clothing worn by her young master before. "The Prada? The Chanel? Or does Natsumi-sama want another outfit? We can probably get it in time if we hurry."

Natsumi, having no idea what Isono-san was blabbering about, decided to turn a blind eye and just leave. Waving to Sasaki-san, who was standing next to the doorway, Natsumi flipped out her mobile phone. "Sasaki-san, send me a map and directions to Hyotei."

"Um, Natsumi-sama…"

Before Sasaki-san can say a word, Isono-san cut in and denied Natsumi's request. "Natsumi-sama! You are not thinking of going to Hyotei with the skateboard, are you?"

Looking back at Isono-san from his reprimanding voice, Natsumi's face darkened. "Isono-san, I am not going to ride that limousine as long as my mind is conscious." With that, she looked at Sasaki-san once again. "Send me walking directions, not driving directions, yeah?"

"Um… yes, Natsumi-sama…" Sasaki-san answered uneasily, looking at Isonosan's exasperated face.

"Natsumi-sama…" Isono-san said in a weak sigh.

"Isono-san, please understand. I didn't mean to sound so hostile toward you," Natsumi said while patting Isono-san on the shoulder. "I'm just a little out of it today because I have to go see that Atobe person…"

Isono-san suddenly perked up. "Oh! Natsumi-sama, so you are nervous! Oh, your poor thing… don't worry, Natsumi-sama, no matter how much power the Atobe family has, I will not allow him to hurt my master's only daughter!"

Natsumi raised her eyebrows at her butler's quirky speech, but her expression softened down a great deal. "Well then. I'm off."

"Take care, Natsumi-sama!"

Waving good-bye to her team of servants, Natsumi was on the road.

**

* * *

**

It wasn't as if Natsumi was worried about how angry Atobe was that she would actually listen to his orders and visit Hyotei. It was more like that she had nothing to do, and that she was hearing the name "Atobe" around her too much for her liking, so she just wanted to cut connections with the source of this problem once and for all. Who cares if he was angry with her? She just wanted him to stop bothering her.

It didn't take her very long to arrive at Hyotei's campus; it was the closets school to her house, and she was going with extra haste today, wanting to get things over with. However, with the directions to Hyotei and all, Natsumi did not expect the site of this school to be so big, and the inside more like a labyrinth than a school. Although Natsumi had already heard about how prosper the school was, who in the right mind would associate a junior high school with five-star cafeterias, fully-equipped gyms, and other luxurious facilities of the sort? And after finding all these places, where was the only place she didn't see? The tennis courts—where she needed to be. And the worst part of this was that it was a weekend and nobody was around to ask for directions.

Without an aim, Natsumi wandered inside the campus in hopes of stumbling upon the tennis courts. But Natsumi wasn't a patient person. Circling the campus for almost an hour, Natsumi got tired of aimlessly walking around, and decided to leave. But just as she turned around to retrieve, she caught a glimpse of a person turning around the corner. She quickly caught up behind him. At least, she thought it was a "him." Natsumi followed behind the long-haired, tall, slender person in front of her with a bit of awe. From the back, Natsumi could only see the flowy brown hair in a ponytail, and the tall figure that's somewhat rare for girls in junior high.

"Hey, excuse me!" Natsumi called out, attempting to ask for directions.

The person turned around at her words, and Natsumi was pleasantly surprised. Even with the long hair, the person had a distinctively boyish face. And even with the boyish face, the person was very handsome—pretty, even. Natusmi found herself staring at him with her mouth open, yet she lost the words that she wanted to say. And then, as if to make things worse, the boy opened his mouth to speak.

"Oh, it's just you, Endo."

The rough voice that came out of the boy's mouth was oddly suitable for the boy's looks. Natsumi couldn't help but get a bit of goose bumps. Yet, at those words, she also felt a little upset. _"Oh, it's just you, Endo." _If he already knew her, then why does he sound displeased at seeing her? The strange sadness that she felt triggered an idea in her head.

"I don't know why you know my name, but could you tell me where the tennis courts are?" asked Natsumi, with unprecedented sweetness in her voice.

The boy looked at her with bewilderment, but he answered her very quickly. "If you're looking for Atobe, he's not at the tennis courts. He's talking with the coach in the faculty room."

The strange tug was there again in Natsumi's heart. Why was the conversation suddenly directed toward Atobe again? But all this just made Natsumi surer about her hypothesis.

"Thank you…" Natsumi said, turning around to leave.

"Hey! The faculty room is that way!" the boy pointed out to another direction.

"Oh," Natsumi turned quickly.

The boy looked at Natsumi's nervous actions strangely. "Are you all right, Endo?"

"Yeah! I'm fine!"

Natsumi nearly jogged away from the handsome boy. She was sure of her feelings. From the sourness before to the happiness now just because of the words "are you all right," she didn't need any more evidence. She didn't have any experience before, and she knew that what's shown on TV weren't always the greatest depiction of real-life, but she was sure.

She fell in love with the boy at first sight.

**

* * *

**

"You're finally here! Do you know how late you are?"

Atobe scolded Natsumi as soon as she entered the faculty room, but Natsumi wasn't paying much attention at all. Her mind was completely occupied by the boy earlier. And it was blatantly shown that she wasn't listening to Atobe's scolding, which was making Atobe extra angry. It was getting a little bit harder for him to keep his graceful composure.

"That's enough," said the older man who sat in the chair in front of Natsumi.

It was the older man who intrigued Natsumi enough for her to pay attention to him. The man was probably in his late thirties, yet he wore expensive suits with flashy colors. His hair was gelled back and he looked stoic, but young.

"Endo-kun," the man addressed Natsumi, "it's a shame that we have to lose you. But since you're no longer a student at Hyotei, you cannot continue to serve as a manager of the Hyotei tennis club."

"Well, obviously."

"Do you have any manners?" Atobe commented. "How disgraceful…"

"Coach, I resign as the manager," Natsumi said, ignoring Atobe's comment. "There are just some people in the tennis club that I cannot stand."

Natsumi glanced at Atobe briefly.

"All right, I understood," said the coach. "You can go ahead and leave now."

Natsumi nodded, picked up her skateboard, and made her way to the door. As she left the faculty room, Atobe let out a sigh of relief. The older man noticed, but he completely understood Atobe's feeling.

"That tone didn't sound like Endo Natsumi at all," the coach said, rubbing the side of his head.

"Yes, it's definitely weird," Atobe said. "Well, now that she's gone, we have to find some way to get Jirou to practice."

**

* * *

**

"ACHOO!" Natsumi sneezed, getting a weird chill from her back. "Maybe someone's talking about me behind my back. I have a bad feeling…"

"Natsumi-chan!" a loud, almost whiny voice came shouting from Natsumi's back. Before she could turn around completely, she was mauled by a flash of yellow. Natsumi fell backwards on the floor due to the unexpected force, and it took her a while to comprehend that the mess of blonde curly hair belonged to a human.

"Natsumi-chan, are you really leaving us?" the blonde boy looked up at Natsumi's face with puppy eyes, though still in his mauling position.

"…" Natsumi was made speechless at the sudden affection. "…Who are you?"

The boy suddenly looked very hurt. "Natsumi-chan! How can you be so mean? It's me! Jirou!"

"…" Even with the introduction, Natsumi still didn't know what to say.

"Jirou-senpai!" another voice came and saved Natsumi from her speechlessness. She looked over to the side to see a tall boy with white, fluffy hair running towards them. The boy had very innocent eyes; he looked like a good boy. And at this time, he had an apologetic look in his eyes. "Jirou-senpai, hurry and get off Endo-san, or else you'll be late for practice and Atobe-senpai will get angry again!"

"Ohtori~" the boy named Jirou whined, but still latched onto Natsumi's neck. "I don't wanna go to practice if Natsumi-chan isn't there~"

"Jirou-senpai, please be considerate of Endo-san's feelings," the boy named Ohtori said patiently toward Jirou's childishness. He looked at Natsumi again before he continued. "Endo-san, we're really sad that you decided to quit as manager, and even transfer to another school. We really want you to come back! We'll practice extra hard for your sake! We promise!"

Natsumi was in trouble now that two boys are begging her to stay, but she didn't even have half a clue what they're talking about.

"Hey! Jirou! Choutarou!" a familiar voice called out from even further. Natsumi knew that voice well. She looked past Ohtori in an instant and there he was—the boy from earlier. He was now dressed in the white and grey uniform, same as Ohtori and Jirou.

"Shishido-san!" Ohtori called back. "We'll be right there! We're trying to convince Endo-san to stay!"

_So his name is Shishido… what a good name!_ Natsumi thought to herself.

Shishido, on the other hand, finally noticed Natsumi on the ground, pushed down by Jirou. However, he clearly didn't seem surprised by the scene. "Atobe is only gonna get angrier with that kind of reason! Now, hurry up and come to practice!"

With that, Shishido left the three of them. Ohtori, being a good boy that he is, pulled Jirou up from Natsumi and bowed to her before leaving. "Sorry, Endo-san. But we really hope you change your mind!"

Natsumi stayed on the ground for a moment before getting up on her feet. Honestly, she didn't hear a word that Ohtori said to her. All that she heard was Shishido's voice, and that she was excited to find out something new about him—that he was in the tennis club.

**

* * *

**

The eventful weekend was over and another school week started. Momoshiro noticed that Natsumi was acting even more out of it than usual. It's not uncommon for Natsumi to be daydreaming in class and not know a thing when she's called on by the teacher. But today, she wasn't just ignoring the teacher's lecture patently; she was humming a notorious song!

"Endo! Endo!" Momoshiro whispered loudly toward the humming girl. The teacher's face was already getting flushed from Natsumi's rude behavior.

"_I'm crazy for you~ Touch me once and you'll know it's true~_" Natsumi kept humming, blocking out Momoshiro's voice with her own.

"Endo!" Momoshiro whispered a little louder. "We're taking a test right now!"

"_I never wanted anyone like this~ It's all brand new, you'll feel it in my kiss~_"

Momoshiro looked worriedly at the teacher and Natsumi back and forth. Although, at this moment, he couldn't help but think that the tune of the song that Natsumi was humming sounded familiar. And even though she was singing in English, he had a weird feeling that Natsumi was singing all the right lyrics. By the looks of the scribbling on her test paper, she was probably writing down the words to her song. But this was a history test!

"_I'm crazy for you~ crazy for you~_"

The last class of the day ended in this ridiculous manner. The teacher let Natsumi slide once again because of her family's status. Although, nobody else in the class knew about this.

"I'm jealous of you, Endo," Momoshiro said as he packed his bags. "You get away with all these things when I get in trouble for eating in class!"

"Even if I would get in trouble, I still wouldn't pay attention," said Natsumi with dignity.

"Eh?"

"'I don't want to go to school just to learn to be a parrot and recite a silly rule.' It's what Peter said and I agree wholeheartedly."

"Who's Peter?"

"The boy who doesn't grow up," Natsumi said as she zipped up her bag. "Momo-kun, you said that you're in the tennis club?"

Unfathomed by the sudden change of subject, Momoshiro answered proudly, "Yes, I am! And I'm a regular too! I'm going to practice right now!"

And then, Natsumi said something that Momoshiro would've never thought he'd hear.

"Can I go see your practice?"

Momoshiro didn't see why he shouldn't take Natsumi on a tour to tennis practice. He actually enjoyed the increasing audience at their tennis practice. The freshman boys and girls that come to see Echizen Ryoma play every day are starting to grow on him. So he lead the way to tennis practice, and he pointed out things to her, even though she didn't look interested at all. In all honesty, Natsumi wasn't interested in tennis at all. She just wanted to know more about the sport that her first love plays and the kind of environment that he's in.

"That's Echizen Ryoma, our newbie regular," Momoshiro pointed at a short boy as he introduced all the regulars on his team. "And that's all the people on the regulars list!"

"Oh," Natsumi replied simply, already forgotten everyone's names.

"Well, I'm going to practice now!"

With that, Momoshiro ran off to a court for practice. Natsumi stayed in the same spot to watch the boys play tennis. Even though Natsumi didn't know anything about tennis, she still enjoyed watching the teenagers play. She could see all the passion that they had for the sport, and things like that always get to her. All the sweat and all the hard work was making her very happy. Until suddenly…

"Endo-san! Watch out!"

Natsumi couldn't react fast enough when a spinning ball came flying at her with godspeed. The yellow ball came in contact with her head, and she blacked out for a couple of seconds. Losing her footing, she fell to the side. But instead of crashing onto the ground, she fell into something hot and wet. She looked up; from the blur she saw a familiar face looking down at her worriedly. After a split second, she realized that she was in his arms and the wet feeling was from all of his sweat. His face was red from playing all that tennis, and he was a little out of breath.

"Are you all right, Endo?"

"Oishi-senpai… you…" Natsumi looked up at her savior with watery eyes.

"Are you okay?" Oishi asked again.

"Oishi-senpai… you're…"

Oishi began to feel a little embarrassed from Natsumi's unmoving gaze.

"…You're making me feel very hot."

**

* * *

**

TBC.

A/N: Anyone recognize the song Natsumi was humming?


	4. Step 04

**Learning to Fly**

It wasn't exactly right if Shishido Ryou were to call Endo Natsumi a friend. He never talked to her much, but not that he wanted to talk to her nor did she want to talk to him. She was always trying to talk to Atobe, who ignored her most of the time. Shishido couldn't exactly call her the tennis club manager, either. She never did much for the team, but Atobe let her stay because she was the only person that could keep Akutagawa Jirou coming to practice. He didn't know what Jirou's deal was; he remembered Jirou telling him something about Endo having a nice smell and aura that made him want to cling onto her. Shishido didn't understand it, nor did most of the other regulars, but the a few others like Ohtori and Mukahi.

Long story short, Shishido could only call Endo an acquaintance, at most. However, for everybody that knew Endo, even the ones that only knew of her name, it was a renowned fact that she'd loved Atobe ever since they were little. It was so obvious that even Shishido, who didn't care much for Atobe or Endo, couldn't help but notice the way she blushed and got shy every time she set her eyes on Atobe.

Although it happened everyday last year during practice, it didn't bother Shishido that much because he wasn't involved with any of it. But even if it was such a trivial matter, it still shocked Shishido and the rest of his team when their club's new manager—Jirou's little sister Akutagawa Chizu—brought the latest gossip from Seigaku.

"Natsumi-chan is going out with Seigaku's vice captain Oishi Shuichirou!" the vivacious girl ran into the courts shouting one day.

"What?" Mukahi perked up at the news. "That's a bit unbelievable."

"It's true!" Chizu said firmly. "I was told that they were even snuggling right in front of people on the tennis courts during practice!"

"Snuggling? That doesn't sound like something Endo would do," said Oshitari as he got up from stretching. "Better yet, Tezuka doesn't seem like the kind that would allow that kind of behavior on the courts."

"Eh? Natsumi-chan has a boyfriend?" Jirou asked, barely awake from his sleep. "Does this mean we should go congratulate her? Can we throw her a party?"

"No! Nii-chan, don't go encouraging her!" Chizu exclaimed, slapping her brother on the head, and then eyed Atobe. "This means Natsumi-chan might never come back to Hyotei!"

Jirou rubbed his head. "Ow, Chizu-chan… you don't have to hit me!"

"What are you going to do, Atobe?" Oshitari asked.

"Why should I do anything about it?" Atobe answered with a bit of annoyance. "You all should be more like Shishido, and pull your heads out of the gossips."

Everyone looked toward the boy mentioned. Shishido already dragged Ohtori away to practice halfway through their discussion. It wasn't any surprise for anyone; Shishido just wasn't the kind to care about things like this.

**Step04: What You'd Call: Grow in the Telling**

Ever since the day that Oishi saved Natsumi from falling, rumors started to spread. Oishi didn't understand why; everyone should've seen that he was only trying to save her. It could've been the fact that they were both blushing after Natsumi's shocking statement. But who wouldn't blush if a cute girl said such a misleading thing to you? And why was _she _blushing anyway?

The rumors went around rapidly and it grew to ridiculous extents. Eventually, it turned out that Natsumi and Oishi became a couple from just that one incident. Oishi began to resent ever saving Natsumi from falling. As if he was being punished for doing a bad deed, Oishi had to bear all the whispers and stares when he passed by people in the hallway. Not to mention all the teasing and strange looks that he has to take from his doubles partners. But the question that was bothering him the most was: why hasn't Endo tried to clear things up?

On the other hand, things weren't so great for Natsumi either. The whispering and staring weren't much of a problem for her, since she can simply ignore them. In fact, she didn't know that there were rumors about her spreading around, let alone noticing the whispering and staring. But the one thing that she could not get away from was the increasingly unwanted attention from a senior of hers—Kikumaru Eiji.

"Natsumi-chan! Natsumi-chan!" the bouncy redhead skipped into Natsumi and Momoshiro's classroom during break.

Natsumi looked up from the unexpected friendliness she was receiving from someone she didn't know very well. "Kikumaru-senpai…?"

"Nya~ are you coming to practice today, Natsumi-chan?"

"No," Natsumi answered almost immediately.

"Why not?" Kikumaru whined. "Oishi would be happy if Natsumi-cham came!"

"Eh?" Momoshiro looked at his senior with surprise. "Oishi-senpai would?"

"Of course!" Kikumaru said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "He would practice extra hard, too!"

Yes, Kikumaru Eiji has begun on his quest to pair Natsumi and his doubles partner together. Ever since seeing the two of them on the tennis courts the other day, Kikumaru was sure that the two were perfect for each other. He'd never seen his partner blush like that with any other girl. Of course, he didn't think too much about the fact that they were exercising rigorously or that the girl said something really misleading. And indeed, Kikumaru was the one that started the rumors.

"…I'm busy today…" Natsumi said, trying to avoid eye contact with Kikumaru's puppy eyes.

"Aww, fine," Kikumaru said with disappointment, but perked up really quickly afterwards. "But you have to promise to come to our first match in the district preliminaries on Saturday! We're playing Gyokurin and we need you to cheer us on!" _Oishi needs your cheering too!_

"… On a Saturday?" Natsumi repeated, thinking that it would be a waste of a weekend.

"Yes! Please!" Kikumaru pleaded. "If you don't come, we'll lose!" _Oishi will definitely win if you come!_

Remembering how hard the boys practiced last time she saw them, Natsumi thought that it would be sad if they lost. But what does that have to do with her? She barely know any of the team members. "…If I can remember…"

"Then it's a deal!" Kikumaru said happily as he skipped out of the classroom. "I'll see you at practice, Momo! And I'll see Natsumi-chan on Saturday!"

Natsumi sighed. She was planning to go to the Vans store in Shibuya to shop for clothes on Saturday, but now her plan was ruined. But then again, maybe she would forget all about it, and no one can blame her for that.

**

* * *

**

It was as if she'd predicted it—Natsumi really did forget about the tennis match. All she remembered was the new skateboarding shoes that she saw on the web, which she was determined to get. It was limited edition; there's no way she's letting it go to someone else's hands. She even woke up early for once and got ready in less than five minutes.

"Natsumi-sama, may I ask where you're going?" asked Isono-san, surprised that Natsumi was up so early.

"I'm going shopping," answered Natsumi pleasantly.

"Oh! Shopping!" Isono-san was delighted to see his young master so happy early in the morning. "Natsumi-sama, don't forget all your VIP cards to the stores you usually go to!"

"VIP cards?"

"Here, here!" Isono-san rushed into a studio room and came out quickly with a stack of cards in his hands. Natsumi took them and went over everything quickly.

"Wow… rich people are really something…" Natsumi murmured, and handed the cards back to Isono-san. "These cards are all to the big stores in Ginza. I won't be using them."

"Eh? Then where are you going?"

"Shibuya."

"What?" Isono-san exclaimed. "Natsumi-sama! That place is way too crowded and full of rowdy young people! You're not safe going there!"

Natsumi raised an eyebrow. "Isono-san, nothing is going to happen," she stated flatly as she walked past the old man and out the door.

"Natsumi-sama, at least let some bodyguards go with you!"

"Isono-san, if I find anybody following me when I'm out, I'll kill myself. Understand?" Natsumi looked back at Isono-san and warned, then left and never looked back.

Natsumi was armed and ready. With her eyes set on the prize, she drops her skateboard on the ground and stepped onto it swiftly. Just as she was going to kick, a voice called out from behind her.

"Natsumi-chan!"

The volume of the voice was so loud that Natsumi almost tipped over. She turned around slowly to see a girl running up to her with bags in her hand. Natsumi thought that the girl sounded familiar, and when she came close, Natsumi remembered who the girl was. Akutagawa Chizu, the girl with the high-pitched voice who first talked about Atobe in front of her.

"You are in big trouble, girl!" Akutagawa Chizu said angrily as she approached Natsumi. "How dare you go behind my back and get with that…that Oishi whatever guy!"

Natsumi cocked an eyebrow. It took her a minute to think of who the girl was talking about. "Where did you hear that from?"

"Somebody from your school, duh!"

"Oh," Natsumi replied nonchalantly. "It's not true. Oishi-senpai is too good for someone like me."

"Hm? It's not true?" Chizu's fire suddenly died down. "I knew it! It's not possible that you could forget about Atobe-senpai that easily!"

Natsumi frowned at the mention of Atobe's name. She thought she already got rid of him. Suddenly feeling annoyed, Natsumi turned to leave. However, Chizu caught up to Natsumi quickly and blocked her way.

"Where do you think you're going?" Chizu pushed Natsumi with her shoulder. "Hurry and come with me to Hyotei's tennis match! If you come often enough, maybe Atobe-senpai will let you stay!"

"I don't want to stay…"

"Oh, whatever, just come with me! And carry a bag too, so it looks like you're trying hard!" Chizu shoved a heavy bag filled with water bottles into Natsumi's arms and dragged her away. Unable to retort fast enough, Natsumi gave in and let herself be dragged by the hyper girl.

**

* * *

**

It took a while for Natsumi and Chizu to arrive at the Kantou District tennis courts, because Natsumi refused to go by car. Natsumi stood next to Chizu wearing a blank expression, while Chizu bent over slightly, panting. But they really didn't have to run.

"Okay, Natsumi-chan, you stay here and don't move!" Chizu said after catching her breath. "I'm going to the reception to see which court Hyotei is playing at."

With that, Chizu ran off again. Natsumi watched silently as Chizu disappeared out of her sight. Using it as a chance, Natsumi was ready to escape. As she lowered to put her skateboard down, she realized that her skateboard wasn't in her hand! Cursing in her head, Natsumi realized that she must've forgotten to take it when she was being dragged off by Chizu. Without the skateboard, it's going to be a long walk back. But either way, Natsumi started to make her way back.

"Oi! Endo!" a familiar voice stopped Natsumi's advancing.

Natsumi sighed and looked back. Just as she expected, it was Momoshiro. The boy ran toward her in haste and dragged her away in the opposite direction. Natsumi had learned her lesson this time and tried to get away. But Momoshiro's strength wasn't like any normal guy's. She could barely move her wrist around within his grasp.

"Good thing I found you! This place is so big I was worried that you might get lost!" Momoshiro said with big breaths. He was also sweating a lot. "Echizen and I just finished playing our match, and it's Kikumaru-senpai and Oishi-senpai's turn! Kikumaru-senpai said they'll lose if I don't find you!"

"Momo-kun," Natsumi said, a little out of breath from the pace that they're running. "What if I said that I'll die if you don't let me go right now?"

"What?" Momoshiro looked back at Natsumi for just an instant. "Don't be silly! Who would believe something like that?"

"…"

Momoshiro lead Natsumi to the court that Seigaku was playing in. Just as Momoshiro said, Kikumaru and Oishi were playing doubles against students from Gyokurin. But unlike what Momoshiro said, the Seigaku pair was actually on a winning streak. Natsumi looked up at Momoshiro accusingly. Being as dense as he is, Momoshiro returned a confident smile at her.

"Kikumaru-senpai and Oishi-senpai are known as the Golden Pair in the Kantou area! Isn't that amazing?"

Natsumi sighed in her mind, and turned her head toward the match. The Golden Pair was amazing indeed. Even though Natsumi didn't know anything about tennis, she could tell that the players of Gyokurin were having a hard time, while they were just taking it easy.

"Hey, Endo!" Momoshiro nudged her. "Come on, cheer!"

"Cheer?"

"Yeah!" Momoshiro put his hands around his mouth. "Like this, and then shout!"

"Oh…" Natsumi mimicked Momoshiro's gesture, but didn't know what to shout. And just at that moment, Kikumaru showed off his acrobatic play. It looked so much like a skateboarding trick that Natsumi was impressed. She shouted before she could realize, "Kikumaru-senpai! That was impressive!"

"Eh?" Kikumaru snapped his head toward Natsumi's voice in shock and missed the ball. "YOU CHEERED FOR THE WRONG PERSON, NATSUMI-CHAN!"

"Kikumaru! Pay attention to the match!" shouted the angry coach.

Natsumi cocked her head to the side. "I did that wrong?"

"Mada mada dane."

Natsumi looked over Momoshiro and down to see where the cocky voice came from. It was a short boy with big eyes with a white cap over his head, sipping on grape-flavored Ponta. The boy noticed Natsumi's gaze, and looked up at her with an expression that said "What are you looking at?"

_What an attitude,_ Natsumi thought to herself. _Although it does remind me of someone._

"Ah, it's you," the boy suddenly remembered something. "The senpai that got hit by the tennis ball the other day."

"Ah, I know," Natsumi also remembered at the same time. "It's Tigerlily."

"Game! Seigaku, 6:0!"

Just as the boy and girl were glaring at each other, the referee already announced the winner. Even after just playing match, Kikumaru was still hyper and energetic. He jumped over to Natsumi and made a pouty face.

"Natsumi-chan! You didn't cheer for Oishi!" Kikumaru cried. "We almost lost!"

Natsumi rasied an eyebrow. "6 to 0…?"

"That doesn't matter!" Kikumaru put on a serious face. "Oishi was definitely not in his best condition today. You need to cheer him up, Natsumi-chan!"

"How?"

"Go over there and say something like 'good job!' or…" Kikumaru grinned. "'You looked really cool while playing!'"

"Oh…" Natsumi nodded in, half understood Kikumaru's point. Walking up to Oishi quietly, she lightly tugged on the boy's shirt. Oishi, who was wiping his sweat with a towel, didn't notice her coming and was surprised to see her.

"Endo!" Oishi's surprised face turned to a kind smile quickly. "Thanks for coming here to cheer for Seigaku."

"… I came here to cheer you up."

"Eh?" Oishi blinked in confusion.

Natsumi kept her blank expression even though Oishi didn't understand her. "Oishi-senpai, you looked really cool while playing…"

"Ah…" Oishi started blush from Natsumi's sudden compliment.

"…you were backing up Kikumaru-senpai so well. You were like his guardian ghost."

"…"

"…" Natsumi, sensing awkwardness rising up, reached into her bag and took out a bottle of water. She put it against Oishi's arm, which was still hot from the exercise not too long ago. Oishi twitched from the sudden cold sensation. "Congratulations on winning, Oishi-senpai."

Oishi blushed again, but shook it away quickly. "Thanks, Endo. Did you bring water bottles for all of us?"

"… N—"

"Wah! Natsumi-chan, you're so nice!"

Before Natsumi can deny it, Kikumaru already hopped over and took a water bottle from her bag.

"I was getting so thirsty!" Kikumaru rejoiced.

"Thanks, Endo! You're so prepared!" Momoshiro joined in.

The two of them grabbed water bottles from her bag without stopping. Passing it around to the other team players, and even to the coach. Very soon, Natsumi was out of water bottles. She stared at her empty bag in silence. Oh well, she didn't buy these water bottles anyway. As she was zipping her bag back up, she noticed a stare directed at her. She looked down and saw the Tigerlily boy, who stuck his hand flat out toward her, as if saying "Where's mine?"

"I don't have any more," Natsumi said, and suddenly realized that she could use this chance to escape. "I go buy more."

"Endo! You don't have to!" Oishi said, feeling bad that Natsumi has to buy more water when their rookie player already had Ponta.

"No, I insist," said Natsumi, and ran off.

**

* * *

**

Just as Natsumi got away, her mobile phone started to ring. She took it out and stared at it strangely; nobody ever called her, because she doesn't give out her number. Looking at the contact information—it was Akutagawa Chizu.

"WHERE DID YOU GO, NATSUMI-CHAN? I WAS LOOKING FOR YOU ALL OVER!"

"I got lost."

"BUT I TOLD YOU NOT TO MOVE!"

"I saw butterflies and I had to follow them."

"…Nevermind. Hurry up and come to Court E! It's the last game and Shishido-senpai is playing, so you don't have much time!"

Natsumi stopped in her track abruptly. "You said Shishido-senpai is playing?"

"Yes! Now hurry!"

With that, connection was cut off from the other side. Natsumi turned around swiftly, and walked toward Court E with the fastest walking speed she had. Her fists tightened as her heartbeat sped up. She found butterflies again, in her stomach. And so, following her guts, she was ready to go see Shishido play.

**

* * *

**

TBC.

A/N: Oishi is a shy guy.


	5. Step 05

**Learning to Fly**

"So what is the deal with Endo Natsumi and Atobe Keigo?"

"She loved the boy, you know. To the point where she would say 'Atobe Keigo is my life'. And literally, too. For Atobe Keigo, she dressed herself nicely everyday, applied for the tennis club manager, and even forced herself to learn everything she can about tennis."

"But Atobe doesn't seem interested at all."

"Yes, he rejected her when she confessed to him at the end of her first year at Hyotei. I guess she just wasn't his type. You can imagine how depressed she became."

"And so, Endo Natsumi lost her will to live. That's why when I died in the car crash, she was willing to let me live?"

"That's right!" said the death god with a snap of his finger. "You're a smart one!"

"Che… that's so clichéd…"

"Hey, hey! At least you get a second chance at living! Don't you have something you want to do before you die?"

"Something I want to do?"

"Yeah, something like a _dream_ or _unfinished business _or whatever you humans call it."

"Oh. If you talk about things I want to do, I probably can't count them all, but…"

"But?"

"If it's something I absolutely must do, I guess I have nothing in particular."

**Step05: What You'd Call: Been Around the Block**

When Natsumi arrived at Court E, Shishido was already half way into the game. Akutagawa Chizu grabbed Natsumi right away upon seeing her, and pushed her down on a seat next to her. "Here!" Chizu said as she shoved a notebook and a pencil into Natsumi's hands. Natsumi looked at the girl questioningly. Chizu looked back at her with the same look.

"What are you waiting for? Take notes!"

"What notes?"

"On how Shishido-senpai is playing, of course!" Chizu said like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "I don't know anything about tennis! So at least you should fill my part in! Now, watch Shishido-senpai play!"

"Oh…" Natsumi replied briefly, and did as Chizu told her to, willingly. On the court, the young man with ponytail moved like he was born to play tennis. Natsumi was in awe how much skill and power Shishido had. His hair flowed gracefully with his movement. And the confident look in his eyes struck her every nerve. She was falling into a trance as she watched Shishido play, and already forgot all about taking notes. Well, she didn't know how, anyway.

"Shishido-senpai… so cool…"

"Huh?" Chizu turned around, hearing Natsumi say something she'd never thought she'd hear from Natsumi. "What did you just say?"

"I said…" Natsumi said without removing her eyes from Shishido. "Shishido-senpai… is so good…"

"Well, of course! He's a regular!"

"I know, but I just wanted to say it anyway," Natsumi said with a satisfied tone. "By the way, where are the other regulars?"

"They are back at school, practicing. We don't need to use regulars during the preliminaries. Just Shishido is enough." A cocky voice came out behind Natsumi and Chizu. They turned around and Natsumi's face darkened at the sight of Atobe Keigo. He looked down on the two girls as if he was high and mighty.

"Have you heard that overconfidence is a bad thing?" Natsumi asked.

"Yes, but that's when you talk about two teams that are on the same level," said Atobe. "Hyotei does not need to bring out its aces until at least the semi-finals. And what are you doing here, Endo, ahn? Don't you think it's weird for a Seigaku student to be here when Seigaku is not playing? Unless you're here to spy on us."

"You talk a lot today," said Natsumi, narrowing her eyes at Atobe.

"Ahn?" Atobe raised an eyebrow. "Since when did you start questioning the way I do things?"

"Ahh! So—sorry, Atobe-senpai!" Chizu jumped into the conversation quickly. "Natsumi-chan is… not feeling good today! But I asked to her take notes for me, so she might be really tired and not thinking straight!"

"How ungraceful…" Atobe said, looking down on Natsumi. "Hyotei doesn't need you to take notes for us. We have plenty of people who are capable."

With that, Atobe left the two girls and walked toward Shishido, who had just won the match. Natsumi narrowed her eyes at the boy's retrieving back. But as her eyes landed on Shishido's glistening form under the sun, a smile appeared again on her face. Chizu, who watched the change of expression on Natsumi's face, was puzzled, but pushed Natsumi out of it.

"Natsumi-chan, what were you thinking?" Chizu scolded her. "Talking like that to Atobe-senpai isn't gonna make him like you at all!"

Natsumi looked at Chizu as if she said something ridiculous. "Why should I make that narcissistic guy like me?"

"Why?" Chizu repeated outrageously. "Ask yourself, dummy! You're the one that's madly in love with him!"

Natsumi, hearing those words, immediately quieted down. Her eyes darkened and the air around her became very cold. She glared toward Atobe's direction, and before Chizu could stop her, she strutted toward the boy.

For all the times that Shishido has seen Natsumi, she has been nothing more than a shy and quiet girl to him. But today, seeing an angry expression that he'd never thought he'd see on Natsumi's face, and watching her stomp toward him and Atobe, it was the strangest thing that happened. But he hadn't seen the worst yet. As the girl made her way over, she stopped right in front of Atobe, making direct eye contact with him. She pointed her finger at his team captain.

"Listen, Narcissus!" she declared loudly. Shishido had to do a double take; he'd never heard that kind of attitude from this girl.

"What did you call me?" Atobe looked unaffected by Natsumi's name-calling, but his voice definitely sounded a bit angry.

"I said…" Natsumi continued to say, pushing away Chizu, who was grabbing her arm and trying to stop her. "Do not think that I even like you one bit! In fact, I detest you and your big cocky attitude!"

"Excuse me?" Atobe was really irritated this time. Shishido was impressed, because Atobe rarely loses his temper for small things like this. Maybe it was due to the fact that Endo Natsumi was suddenly acting so unlike herself, and Atobe used to ignore her so easily. "Who was the one that confessed to me last year and cried after I rejected her?"

"Oi, Atobe," Shishido put a hand on Atobe's shoulder. "Isn't that a bit…" Even though Shishido knew how big of an ego Atobe had, bringing up something like that from the past was sure to sting. But what he didn't know was that Natsumi has now gained a new attitude. And this one was one that could not be insulted so easily.

"Only a Narcissus like you would misunderstand that," Natsumi said, as serious as a person can be, "That was Opposite Day! Haven't you heard about it?"

"…"

"…"

"…"

"How… how pathetic…" Atobe was finally able to squeeze that out after being put speechless as well as Chizu and Shishido. "You're just making excuses…"

"Why would I like somebody who ruined my life?" Natsumi's eyes darkened. It was true; if it weren't for Atobe, maybe things wouldn't have happened the way they happened. "I feel sorry for that girl… falling in love with someone like you!"

"What are you talking about?" Atobe asked, half confused and half angry.

"What I'm trying to say is… if I were her…" Natsumi took a deep breath, and let it out slowly. "Instead of liking a cocky guy like you, I would definitely choose a man like Shishido-senpai any day!"

After saying so, the girl took a turn and ran away.

**

* * *

**

Shishido Ryou, third year student at Hyotei Gakuen, in all fifteen years of his life, has never had a girl confess to him before. It's not that he wasn't popular; of course, he did have a fan club dedicated to him like everyone else on the tennis team. It was more because of the way he acted. He wasn't interested in the girly type, so he often came off as mean or hard to approach. Some girls liked that, but they wouldn't try to approach him like they do for friendlier people such as Ohtori or Mukahi or Oshitari. In fact, he still wasn't quite sure what type of girl was his cup of tea.

In any case, the closest thing to a confession that Shishido Ryou has ever received was the incident with Endo Natsumi. The girl, who was supposedly to be madly in love with Atobe Keigo, just stated that she'd choose him any day. Shishido didn't know what to think. Most guys would feel proud and show off when something like that happened, but not him. He has never even really talked to Endo Natsumi before. And after the incident today, his presumption of Endo Natsumi's personality totally crumbled. Even her best friend, Akutagawa Chizu, was made speechless.

Moreover, he was certainly not prepared for running into Endo Natsumi again on his way home in the evening.

After the victory of their first match, the Hyotei team went to a small restaurant to celebrate. Even though none of the regulars played except for Shishido, they still tagged along. By the time that they were finished, it was already eight o'clock. Ohtori, who lived in the same direction as Shishido, walked home with him, while everyone else scattered.

"Shishido-senpai, good game today!" said Ohtori.

"Thanks, Chuutarou!" Shishido replied, feeling better and better as he received many compliments today. "You work hard too, so you'll be able to play on the regular's team."

"I will," said Ohtori, looking up in the sky. "But I just can't seem to play well enough…"

"Chuutarou, you have great serves. One of the best in Hyotei. If you concentrate on that, you will win all of your serving rounds. This way, you know you won't lose!"

"Shishido-senpai… you're right!"

"Great! I'll help you practice your serves," said Shishido, pumped to see his friend motivated.

"Thanks!" Ohtori said, looking brightly ahead, but something in his view wiped his smile off. He narrowed his eyes to see better in the dark, but he was pretty sure about what he had seen. "Shishido-senpai… isn't that…?"

"Huh?" Shishido looked in Ohtori's direction; there were a group of delinquents loitering in the alley. Shishido frowned. "Ignore them, Chuutarou. What they do with their lives is none of our business."

"No, I don't mean that!" Ohtori said, this time more anxious. "There's a girl they're harassing! I think it's Endo-san!"

"What?" Shishido squinted toward the dark alley. Indeed, a girl that resembled Endo Natsumi greatly was there, surrounded by the delinquents.

"We have to help her!" Ohtori said and took off, before Shishido could stop him. Worried for his friend, Shishido quickly followed Ohtori.

As they got closer to the gang, they were more positive that they girl in trouble was Endo Natsumi. But the more Shishido looked, the weirder he felt about the situation. The guys surrounding Natsumi were all big and tall and dirty, with smug looks on their faces. But even in this situation, there wasn't a bit of nervousness or fear on the girl's face. It wasn't like her at all. Shishido remembered that the ex-manager would get scared even when the regulars played a bit too rough. Even when there was the smallest fight ever, Natsumi would get nervous.

"Let her go!"

Before Shishido could tell Ohtori to wait for the right moment, he'd already shouted out loud. The delinquents turned around, looking at them with threatening looks. Shishido felt his friend's body tense up; Ohtori wasn't the kind of guy who got into fights. At this, Shishido put up a serious look. As the eldest, he must think of a way to keep his friends out of trouble. Even if things start to get rough.

"Hey kid! Do you know who you're talking to?"

"We're just having a talk with the lady~ don't misunderstand it~"

Shishido stood in front of Ohtori, glaring back at the delinquents. "I don't think a dark alley is a great place for having 'just a talk.'"

"What? Do you have something to say about how we do things?" one of the men with long hair, seemingly the leader, said as he stood right in front of Shishido. "This area is our territory. I, Oda Ryuji, will decide how things should be done here!"

"Shishido-senpai?" Natsumi's voice came out from behind Oda Ryuji, and the girl stepped out of the shadow into everyone's sight. "What are you doing here?"

"Endo-san! Are you all right?" Ohtori exclaimed, stepping forward to check up on her, only to be pushed away by Oda.

"Hey! Didn't I say this was my territory? Step back!" said Oda, smirking.

"Keep your hands off him, bastard!" Shishido said as he steadied Ohtori back on his feet.

"What?" Oda turned to Shishido and glared at him. The man chuckled darkly and took out knife from his pocket. Pointing it at Shishido and Ohtori back and forth, he said, "What are you gonna do about it? Huh?"

The other guys began to snicker as well, taking out pipes and bats and wooden sticks. Shishido cursed in his head; there were too many of them against just two. Not to mention that fighting might expel them from the tennis team if they were caught.

"What do you think you're doing?"

Shishido and Ohtori were astonished with the scene in front of them. Natsumi, who was behind Oda, suddenly pushed through and stood in front of them, facing Oda. Out of surprise, Oda pulled back his knife for an inch, but pointed it back at Natsumi after a second.

"Hey, get out of the way, little sweetie! Don't wanna put a scar on that cute little face of yours now, do we?" Oda said smugly.

"Che… that line is overused. You fail at being a villain!" said Natsumi, making Shishido and Ohtori's heart jump.

"E—Endo-san! Don't taunt them!" Ohtori whispered to Natsumi.

But it was too late. Oda and the others already had angry faces up replacing the arrogant one.

"What? What do you know about being a villain?"

"Just put your weapons down, and nobody gets hurt," said Natsumi with genuine annoyance in her voice. Even Mr. Smee can do better than you!"

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"Hey, Oda!" one of Oda's sidekicks said, "Don't listen to her! I think she's a little crazy in the head!"

"Who's a little crazy in the head?" Natsumi said, turning to the sidekick. "It's bad enough that you're only a sidekick! So don't say something like that so proudly while your fly's open!"

"What?" the sidekick looked down at his pants and covered it quickly with one and while trying to zip it with the other.

"Tanaka! You idiot!" Oda bellowed at his henchman. However, he does not lower his knife. "Woman, I know what you're trying to do. You're just trying to buy time! Too bad the police don't come around here often. You'll all be dead before anyone notices!"

Natsumi's eyes darkened, and her voice became very low. "You're too naïve, Oda. There's an easier way to send you all to hell, and you've just lost your chance to redeem yourself."

"What?" Oda raised his eyebrow. "Ha! I'd like to see what a little girl like you can do!"

"You really think I would dirty my hands for the likes of you?" Natsumi said, full of confidence. "Sasaki-san, I think it's about time they get a taste of what a real villain can do!"

Suddenly, Shishido felt the presence of not one but many people appearing behind them. He looked around, and was shocked to see what seemed like twenty vicious-looking men in black suits. In their lead was a man who looked about thirty with his hair gelled back and sunglasses over his eyes. All of them had menacing faces; they looked like a real mafia.

"Natsumi-sama, please do not call us villains," the man in lead, most likely Sasaki-san as called by Natsumi, said sternly, but Shishido could hear a hint of plead in the man's voice. "We're all walking in the right path now."

"If you're in walking in the right path, you wouldn't disobey your master's order, Sasaki-san," said Natsumi coolly. "Now, to make up for your mistake, go teach those kids a lesson!"

"Yes, Natsumi-sama!"

Shishido and Ohtori opened their eyes wide as they watched the men in black take down the gang almost instantly. Shishido knew that Natsumi came from a rich family, that's why she was closer to Atobe than the other girls at school, but he didn't expect her to have so many professional bodyguards. Within a few minutes, all the delinquents there were all maneuvered over to the police station.

"Natsumi-sama," said Sasaki-san as he bowed to his young master. "Next time, please do not hesitate to call for our help. Even though our men are very skilled, there's still a chance that you may get hurt."

"Sasaki-san, I don't think that you've forgotten what I said this morning about not following me," Natsumi said, scolding the older man.

"But if we didn't follow you, you would've been…"

"Did you pick up the skateboard that I left on the street?" Natsumi asked suddenly.

"Huh?" Sasaki-san paused from the abrupt change of subject. "Oh, yes, I did. I have it with me in the car."

"All right. I'll forgive you since you picked up my skateboard," Natsumi said, and suddenly the tense mood is lifted. She stood on her toes and patted her bodyguard on the shoulder. "How about we race home? Your car versus my skateboard."

"What? You're not seri—"

Before Sasaki-san could finish his sentence, Natsumi ignored him and turned to the awestruck boys who watched them bicker quietly. To be more exact, she turned to Shishido only. Shishido looked back at the girl who just saved their day, feeling more confused than ever.

"Shishido-senpai… thank you for trying to save me earlier…" Natsumi said, looking a bit nervous.

"Huh? Oh… no, I should thank you…" Shishido said.

"Shishido-senpai, if something like this happen again, please don't try to help. Just ignore it and walk away," said Natsumi, looking at Shishido with lucid eyes this time.

"What are you talking about, Endo-san?" Ohtori said. "We can't just watch you get harassed by guys like that!"

"I'm grateful already that you guys are thoughtful like this…" Natsumi smiled sweetly. The feisty aura around her was all gone.

"But I'll be so terribly sad if I couldn't watch Shishido-senpai play tennis anymore, if Shishido-senpai was caught fighting with those pigs."

**

* * *

**

TBC.

A/N: Review please?


	6. Step 06

**Learning to Fly**

Sasaki Kouji, currently aged thirty-four, most commonly known as Sasaki-san, was the head bodyguard in charge of Endo Natsumi. Sasaki-san was first hired by Natsumi's father back when he was twenty-two. Before meeting Natsumi's father, Sasaki-san was the leader of a gang. Being a high-school dropout and everything, Sasaki-san didn't know how to do anything except for fighting. However, Sasaki-san wasn't a bad guy, and so were his friends in the gang. Natsumi's father knew everything; he was Sasaki-san's neighbor. He saw how much Sasaki-san cared for his old and sick mother, and thought that Sasaki-san was truly a good person. When Sasaki-san's mother died, Natsumi's father took Sasaki-san in and provided him with work and free hospitality. And eventually, he also hired the rest of Sasaki-san's gang, thus making up a team of bodyguards for Natsumi.

To repay everything that Natsumi's father has done for them, Sasaki-san and his gang swore to protect Natsumi with their lives. And like father like daughter, they found Natsumi to be a sweet and caring child. The bodyguards got along with the young girl very well. Sasaki-san got to know Natsumi's personality throughout time; Natsumi would always give everything she has for the ones she loves. That's why when the boy named Atobe Keigo broke her heart, many bodyguards wanted to go break the guy's legs. But that would make Natsumi even sadder.

However, everything changed after that tragic car crash. The sweet and caring Natsumi was gone and was replaced by an eccentric girl. Sasaki-san couldn't get used to it, but Natsumi was still Natsumi; he swore with his life to be beside her. But just yesterday, Sasaki-san saw faintly a sign of the old Natsumi for a split second.

_"But I'll be so terribly sad if I couldn't watch Shishido-senpai play tennis anymore, if Shishido-senpai was caught fighting with those pigs."_

The look on Natsumi's face when she talked to the boy named Shishido, Sasaki-san knew very well. It was the same one when Natsumi talks about Atobe Keigo. But why is it someone else now?

This Shishido boy… he's going to keep an eye on him.

**Step06: What You'd Call, Yesterday's Man**

"Natsumi-chan! Natsumi-chan! You never came back after you left on Saturday, nya!"

It was lunch time and Natsumi's quiet eating experience was ruined by her bouncy senior Kikumaru Eiji. She deserved this one though. She completely forgot about Seigaku's team after going to see Shishido. Although you can't really say that it was her fault; nothing should come before Shishido! But that wasn't what Kikumaru thought. There should only be Oishi in the girl's little heart!

Natsumi looked at Kikumaru emotionlessly. "… I forgot."

"Forgot?" Kikumaru whined, with watery eyes that would make anyone surrender. "We all went to Taka-san's sushi restaurant to celebrate afterwards! Oishi was so bored without you there!"

"Eh?" Momoshiro looked up from eating. "Oishi-senpai was?"

"Of course!" Kikumaru said loudly, making some heads turn in the classroom. "Natsumi-chan, you should come to practice today and cheer him up!"

"Oh…" Natsumi said, but she couldn't think of why Oishi would be bored without her. "I can't today. I have to go to the teacher's office after school."

"Eh? Are you serious?"

"Yeah, it's true!" Momoshiro said in Natsumi's defense. "Endo got bad grades on her midterm tests, so the teacher wants to talk to her."

Kikumaru looked at Natsumi to confirm, who nodded honestly. She obviously didn't feel ashamed at all about her grades.

"Okay, fine…" Kikumaru pouted. "But you _have _to come to practice tomorrow, nya!"

"… If I remember."

**

* * *

**

"Endo-kun… I'm not trying to say that you're… incapable or anything. All the faculties here know that you're a very, very smart student. But your grades on the midterm exams are just…"

"It's okay, Koike-sensei, you can be honest."

"Eh?" Koike-sensei blinked at Natsumi's bluntness. "No, no, Endo-kun, I'm not saying that you're not smart. It's just that… your grades at Hyotei were great, but suddenly it drops after you transferred to Seigaku…"

_It's going to be bad for our school's reputation…_

"Endo-kun, I'm sure you can get passing grades on these tests. You just need to try har—"

"Try harder. I know." Natsumi said coolly, looking out the window. "Commit to education, and you'll be successful in the future. In school, you'll find your interest and talent. You'll find the road that you want to walk on. Your teachers will be there to help you. I've heard it all before…"

Koike-sensei smiled in relief. "That's great, Endo-kun. You just need to stay positive—"

"But I can't seem to find my interest or talent. Something that'll bring me success in the future, at least. I haven't found one yet," Natsumi said, watching the sky start to turn to a reddish orange. "How am I supposed to be good at something I'm not interested in? Or does everyone strive for success even though they're unhappy, and they don't think it's wrong because it's the norm these days?"

"Um…" Koike-sensei opened his mouth, but remained speechless.

"It's the same everywhere. They tell me, 'you should at least pass math; it's the least you should do.'" Natsumi continued, looking at the teacher this time. "But I don't want to do 'the least.' I want to do 'the best' in things I want to do. And if those things are considered a waste of time, I'd rather not grow up at all."

"Uh… Endo-kun…" Koike-sensei racked his brain for something to say. "Don't worry, Endo-kun… you're just going through a phase right now. Everybody goes through it at your age. There's still a lot of time for you…"

Natsumi's eyes darkened. "It'll be too late by then…"

"It's never too late, Endo-kun."

"…" Natsumi sat in silence for a while, and stood up slowly. "Thank you, Koike-sensei… you're a good teacher…"

"No problem. Come talk to me whenever you need to, Endo-kun."

Natsumi nodded as she exited the faculty room. She put her skateboard down on the ground, and put a foot on it. But just before she was going to kick, she suddenly didn't feel like it anymore. She took her skateboard into her hands and dragged her feet toward the gate. As she neared the gate, she heard a familiar sound. It pulled her out of her thoughts, and she looked for the source of the sound.

It was an acoustic guitar.

She looked toward the school gate and there it was. A boy was sitting there against the school gate, strumming the guitar lightly. He was quite skilled. Natsumi felt something rise in her chest, and she made her way toward the boy.

"Hey, young man."

The boy stopped strumming abruptly, looking up at Natsumi with surprise. "You're talking to me?"

Natsumi nodded quickly. "Can I borrow your guitar real quick?"

"Eh?"

"I used to play guitar, and I haven't played in a while," Natsumi said. "Can I play it, please?"

"Oh, of course!" finally caught on to what Natsumi was trying to say, the boy agreed easily. He handed the her the guitar with a warm smile, and Natsumi smiled faintly at the feeling of holding a guitar again.

"Martin HD-28V. It's a nice guitar," Natsumi murmured as she tried tuning it.

"Thanks!"

Natsumi started to play a few notes, then a melody. And suddenly she felt a song coming up in her head. She hasn't heard it in a while, but she still knew it. She cleared her throat lightly, and began to sing softly. She wasn't a diva or anything, but she had a pleasant voice. It was a bit raw, but that added a bit of uniqueness to it.

_I dashed out in my sneakers, as if walking against_

_The wave of people. Can I come back? What should I have done?_

_The showy streets blur on the road home_

_Crazy passion, easy action, I wanted you to accept me_

As she neared the chorus, Natsumi started to sing louder.

_Tearful merry-go-round, bewildered by the radiance_

_I'm just a baby, oh! Mind_

_Goodbye, merry-go-round, my love was spinning its wheels_

_Feeling is the merry-go-round_

As she sang, she started to remember her past. A scene like this was all too familiar. Back then, she used to take her guitar everywhere, and sang on the streets. Meeting some other musicians in her neighborhood, they formed a small band. They weren't professional or anything; they didn't have gigs or any public performances besides playing on the streets. They didn't go far, but she had a lot of fun.

That was how it was with everything that she did. She had what you would call a short attention span. When she got interested in something, she will go into it wholeheartedly. But when she got bored, she will leave it just as fast. And it seemed that everything she liked never got her anywhere. Whether it be skateboarding or playing guitar, it wasn't something that teachers and adults applauded her for. They told her that having hobbies is a good thing, but she should concentrate on studying too. So she tried, but she just couldn't do well.

Her parents told her that it's okay if she didn't do well; just try harder next time. And so, after countless of second chances, she got used to it. She stopped trying, and she was lost.

_I stand still at the intersection, unable to turn around; I'm still hoping_

_I can't - can I come back? - rely on your gentleness_

_The signal changes to green and I start walking again_

_What's the matter? Is this all? I wanted you to chase me_

She didn't real parents. No. She was adopted. Her foster parents couldn't have children, so they loved her like no other. They never forced her to do anything. At one point, she'd wished that they had higher expectations for her. Because every time that she was forgiven, she was more confused with what she should or should not do for a kid her age.

That's why, even if she died in the car crash, she didn't really mind. Even if she was given a second chance, she was still in the same starting point. The only thing she would be upset about was leaving her parents. But rather than having such a failure of a daughter, crying a few nights would be better for them, right?

Although, instead of shoving her parents out of her room when she played guitar, she now wished that she could've played one song for them before missed her chance.

_Tearful merry-go-round, bewildered by the radiance_

_I'm just a baby, oh! Mind_

_Goodbye, merry-go-round, my love was spinning its wheels_

_Feeling is the merry-go-round_

"Hey, isn't that Natsumi-chan?"

"Huh?" Oishi looked over to where his doubles partner pointed. Tennis practice had just ended and they were walking home together. At the school gate sat a small girl, strumming a guitar and singing loudly. The girl looked so into it that she'd forgotten that she was using someone else's guitar. "You're right, it's Endo."

"I didn't know Natsumi-chan plays guitar!" Kikumaru said excitedly. "And she sings well too! Isn't that so cool?"

Oishi looked at the girl's face as she sang. She was enjoying it. And he smiled.

"Yeah… she is…"

**

* * *

**

"Welcome back, Natsumi-sama!"

"Thank you, Isono-san. How was your day today?"

"Splendid!" Isono-san almost sang it when he got such a pleasant reply from his young master. Natsumi seemed like she was in a good mood. "Natsumi-sama, did something good happen?"

"You could say so," Natsumi said, unable to hide her smile. "I want to go shopping, Isono-san."

"Oh? What do you want to buy?"

"A guitar."

"A guitar?" Isono-san repeated the foreign word. "But you don't play the guitar."

"Oh. Uh… I read up on it and I'm interested," Natsumi said.

All of a sudden, Isono-san burst out in tears. "Oh, Natsumi-sama! Finally, you found your interest in guitars! Oh, master would be _so _happy if he knew about this!" Isono-san took out a handkerchief to wipe his eyes. "Natsumi-sama, if you don't mind, master has a collection of guitars, and he'd always wanted to teach you."

"Oh?" Natsumi perked up at the word 'collection.' "I want to see them!"

"Right this way, Natsumi-sama…"

"Wait, Natsumi-sama," said Sasaki-san as he came in from the door way. "Your friend is here to see you?"

"My friend?" Natsumi eyed Sasaki-san in confusion, who gave her a slight shrug. And then, a slender body came out from behind the wall, and Natsumi felt a sense of premonition as she recognized the figure.

"Natsumi-chan!" Akutagawa Chizu stormed into Natsumi's hallway, looking angry and flushed. "You are going to come with me right now, and explain everything to me! Understand?"

"Explain what?" Natsumi asked, but without getting an answer, Chizu already got her hand in a dead lock.

For the thousandth time these past three days, Natsumi has been dragged to places. And this time, Chizu dragged the poor girl to a nearby café. She sat her down on a random spot and ordered two strawberry smoothies for both of them. Natsumi looked at her smoothie in disgust; she doesn't even like strawberry… she likes mango. Chizu, however, didn't notice anything, but only looked at Natsumi impatiently and gestured for her to talk.

"So? Explain!" Chizu prodded Natsumi for an answer.

"Explain what?" Natsumi repeated her question from before.

"You know!" Chizu said. "When you said you'd prefer Shishido-senpai over Atobe-senpai! I couldn't tell if you were trying to make Atobe-senpai jealous or you were being honest!"

"Well, of course I was being honest," Natsumi stated flatly.

Chizu widened her eyes. "So you don't like Atobe-senpai anymore?"

"I never liked him," Natsumi said. "I've always liked Shishido-senpai."

"What?" Chizu frowned in her confusion, but shook it off in a few seconds. "Well… at least it's better than liking Atobe-senpai… he's way out of your league…"

Natsumi raised an eyebrow. "…Way out of my league…?"

"But why Shishido-senpai? How come you never tried to talk to him like you tried everything with Atobe-senpai?" Chizu ignored the girl's skeptic look and went off her own topic. "Doesn't he seem a bit… hostile? He doesn't look like the type that would be nice to girls…"

"I like everything about Shishido-senpai," Natsumi stated plainly.

"Oh… well, if you say so," Chizu whipped up a bright smile. "I'll support whatever Natsumi-chan decides!"

Natsumi, for the first time, didn't think that Chizu was just an annoying girl anymore. In the end, second chances are always a blessing, even if you didn't ask for it. Maybe having a best friend like Akutagawa Chizu wasn't such a bad thing; it'll just be a bit louder later on. And most importantly, through this second chance, she got to meet Shishido Ryou. And that makes everything worth it.

**

* * *

**

TBC.

A/N: Sorry for the short chapter! The song that Natsumi sings in this chapter is "Merry Go Round" by YUI.


	7. Step 07

**Learning to Fly**

It was just another day of practice at the tennis courts for the regulars at Hyoutei Gakuen. Today, the clouds were starting to gather and they sky was overcast. There was quite big of a possibility that it might rain the next day. Maybe there wasn't enough warmth from the sun, or maybe it was a bit chilly, but whatever reason it was, Akutagawa Jirou was awake. It was quite a surprise to everyone, but as they expected, Jirou wasn't exactly practicing diligently even if he was awake.

"Ne, Chizu-chan~" Jirou wobbled toward his younger sister. "When is Natsumi-chan coming back?"

"Nii-chan, I already told you!" Chizu said while eyeing Atobe nervously. "Natsumi-chan isn't coming back…"

Jirou, being observant for this rare occasion, noticed Chizu's eyes on Atobe. Jirou ran up to Atobe and made a pouty face. Any girl would give in to such puppy-eyes, but not Atobe Keigo.

"Atobe!" Jirou whined, "It's your fault that Natsumi-chan left us! You have to go apologize!"

"Don't mention that disgraceful woman's name in front of me," Atobe said through gritted teeth. Nowadays, he grew irritated easily whenever he heard the name Endo Natsumi.

"You're so mean, Atobe…" Jirou continued to pout. "You always looked down on Natsumi-chan… but she's really, really nice…"

Atobe, as well as the other regulars, quieted down at Jirou's words. It was rare to see Jirou talk seriously like that. Ohtori, who was getting ready to practice with Shishido, looked over to Jirou and Atobe as he heard their argument. Unable to keep quiet, Ohtori joined Jirou's side.

"Akutagawa-senpai is right," Ohtori said, looking at Atobe with a frown, but still maintained a polite tone. "Endo-san worked really hard, no matter what her motive was. And she really looked out for us."

Atobe raised an eyebrow at the two children of the team. His mind was very much bothered by everyone talking about Endo Natsumi. Since when did he turn into a villain? "You guys really think she's a good manager when she ran off to Seigaku by herself? Wake up. Especially you, Ohtori. Instead of thinking about something like this, you should practice harder, or else there would not be a space for you in the regulars!"

Atobe's one statement silenced Ohtori. Ohtori looked down gloomily and walked away toward Shishido, who patted the young boy's shoulder to cheer him up, but remained rigidly silent himself. Shishido has never really paid attention to whether Natsumi was a good person or not. He just knew, or at least he thought he knew, that Natsumi became the manager in order to be closer to Atobe. But that was wrong. Natsumi didn't come just to be closer to Atobe. And suddenly, _he_ was dragged into this whole thing.

_"But I'll be so terribly sad if I couldn't watch Shishido-senpai play tennis anymore, if Shishido-senpai was caught fighting with those pigs."_

**Step07: What You'd Call, Waiting for a Raindrop**

Heavy rain poured from the sky unexpectedly the next day. It started raining a day earlier than the weather forecast reported, so many students got rained on from their way to school. Natsumi, of course, wasn't the type of person that carried an umbrella around. In fact, she enjoyed the rain. She took her time walking in the rain while students next to her ran with their bags over their heads. But for the first time, Natsumi felt a little colder than usual.

"ACHOO!"

Momoshiro nearly fell out of his seat from Natsumi's thunderous sneeze. The incredible volume of clothing that Natsumi wrapped herself with shocked him as well when he turned to look at her. "Are you okay, Endo?" Momoshiro placed the back of his palm on Natsumi's forehead to feel for the temperature. "Whoa! Endo, you're really hot! You wanna take off some of those clothes before you burn to death?"

"No," Natsumi said through her constant sniffling. "The cold is caused from the sudden change of weather. I have to keep myself at a stable temperature so I can get better."

"O…oh," Momoshiro gave it a couple of seconds to let the information sink in before he continued. "You should prepare an umbrella! The weather forecast isn't so accurate sometimes."

"I didn't think that I would need it," Natsumi said gravely. "It seems like Endo Natsumi hasn't been through much rain and storm…"

"Huh?" Momoshiro blinked, although he was used to hearing strange things from Natsumi. He knew that she tended to go off topic. "Maybe you should take the day off and rest at home…"

"No," Natsumi replied instantly. "I'll be fine."

However, Natsumi did not turn out fine. Throughout all the classes, she dozed off and slept, but Momoshiro explained to the teacher that she was sick. Natsumi sat in her seat with her head down all the way until lunch. But even then, her temperature only rose without fail. Finally, lunch break came and her rest was interrupted by none other than her favorite senior, Kikumaru Eiji.

"Natsumi-chan!" the redheaded young man waltzed in front of the sick girl as if he didn't see her pale complexion at all. "Natsumi-chan~ are you in a bad mood?"

Natsumi didn't answer him; she rummaged through her bag to look for packed lunch. But she was having a little trouble.

"Um… Kikumaru-senpai…" Momoshiro spoke in Natsumi's place. "Endo is actually sick…"

"Sick?" Kikumaru repeated Momoshiro's word, and shot out a hand at Natsumi's forehead. "Whoa, you _are_ sick! Natsumi-chan, you need more Vitamin C, nya!" Kikumaru said as he took out his cell phone from his pocket, and speedily typed something into it. "I told Oishi to come eat lunch with us today. I'll ask him to buy some orange juice on his way here!"

"No, there's no need to," said Natsumi as she got up from her seat. "I forgot to bring my lunch. I have to go buy it right now."

"Eh?" Before Kikumaru could stop the girl, she'd already made her way out of the classroom. "Is she going to be okay? She's barely walking straight."

"Who knows… but Oishi-senpai is on his way here, right?" Momoshiro shrugged and wolfed down his own lunch. "They'll probably run into each other."

"That's true. If anything happens, Oishi will…" Kikumaru's voice trailed off as he came into realization. Suddenly, his innocent smile became a sly smirk. "That's right! This is actually perfect! Nyahahaha…"

**

* * *

**

Just as Kikumaru planned, Oishi was indeed on his way to Momoshiro and Natsumi's classroom. It was a bit of a surprise when he saw Natsumi walk his way with some swaying and stumbling. Being the worrisome type of person he was, Oishi hurried over to Natsumi's side. As he got close he was able to see how pale Natsumi's face compared to her usual skin tone. Although, without realizing it, his action in the middle of the hallway drew some of the students' attention.

"Endo!" Oishi called out for Natsumi's attention. "How are you feeling?"

"Not that great…" Natsumi spoke with a husky voice through her teeth.

"What's wrong?" Oishi asked, a bit more worried. Being the good student he is, Oishi didn't check his cell phone for Kikumaru's message. Naturally, he didn't know that Natsumi was sick.

"I…" Natsumi said between deep breaths. "I… I'm so hungry that I can't stand…"

"…" Oishi wasn't sure whether Natsumi was kidding or serious. She sounded like she was kidding, but her pale face was telling a different story. "Endo, are you…"

Before Oishi could finish his sentence, the most shocking thing happened. Without alarm, Natsumi's body fell forward like a broken robot. Out of instinct, Oishi reached out his arms to catch Natsumi so that she won't hit her head against the floor. He only noticed how high Natsumi's temperature was when he touched Natsumi's skin.

"Oi!" Oishi was seriously concerned now. "Are you okay?"

"Damn…" Natsumi murmured shakily. "This body is too weak…"

"Endo, this is not the time to joke around!" Oishi said sternly as he steadied Natsumi back on her feet, but the girl's knees barely had enough strength to stay straight. "Come on, I'll take you to the infirmary!"

He grabbed one of Natsumi's slim arms and put it over his shoulder. However, the height difference between him and her were too great; Natsumi had to stand on her toes. Seeing that this won't work out, Oishi quickly stepped in front of Natsumi and carried her piggyback style. Many students were staring now, as Oishi carried his rumored 'girlfriend' on his back while making his way down the hallway. It didn't bother the boy, though, since Natsumi's health was far more important than student gossips at the moment.

Natsumi could hear the faint murmurs of her peers as Oishi took big strides down the corridor. Natsumi pulled her head upwards with her all might so that she was next to her senpai's ear.

"Oishi-senpai…" Natsumi said in a weak but stoic voice. "You shouldn't be doing this…"

Natsumi's breath was warm from her fever; it made the boy shudder as it brushed the outline of his ear. Oishi blushed unconsciously as he realized that he has never had such close contact with a girl before. Nevertheless, Oishi kept walking at the same pace.

"What are you talking about?" Oishi said somewhat calmly. "I can't just leave you there!"

"You know… that there are rumors about us… right?"

Oishi shuddered again and became more aware of the people beside them. "Le…let them think what they want, Endo. Your health is more important right now…"

"Oishi-senpai, you're too good of a person…" Natsumi's voice became weaker and weaker. "Your reputation would be ruined if you're with someone like me…"

Natsumi's voice trailed off and her head fell limp on Oishi's shoulder. The girl had fallen asleep. Oishi was glad that the girl won't be breathing into his ear anymore, but her last words give him a strange tug in his chest.

Luckily for the both of them, the nurse was there at the infirmary at this hour. She fed Natsumi some medicine and the girl almost instantly fell back to sleep. They settled the girl down on a bed, and the nurse called her in sick to her homeroom teacher. Oishi sighed in relief as he accomplished his task. Looking at Natsumi's reddish face as she slept soundly, he noticed that she wasn't as weird as other people said she was. She was a little bit cute, maybe.

"Her temperature went down a bit," the nurse said as she took out the thermometer from Natsumi mouth. "What was this child thinking when she came to school today? She should've stayed home!"

"I don't know…" Oishi replied, glancing at the nurse as she cleaned after her pills. "I guess she's a bit headstrong…"

"Hmph… headstrong, eh?" the nurse frowned as she said disapprovingly. "She should just stay home instead of giving me trouble here. This is why I don't like rich kids. They think they can do anything, but they don't even know how to take care of themselves."

Oishi did not say anything in response to what the nurse said. He looked at Natsumi's sleeping face silently as he thought back about what Natsumi said before she passed out. Even if she was hard to approach sometimes, he didn't think that she was the kind of cocky rich kid that the nurse was talking about. She was just a straightforward person, that's all.

**

* * *

**

"Can I go outside now, Isono-san?"

Natsumi asked grumpily as she sat immobile in her bed, tightly tucked in. Isono-san, on the other hand, stood in front of the doorway in his arms folded at his chest.

"Natsumi-sama, you are not going outside until you're completely back to health."

"But I _am_ better."

"Not until you finish all the medicine that the doctor gave you," Isono-san said sturdily. "Natsumi-sama, you really worried us that day when the nurse called us."

Natsumi did not wake up even until school was over that day. The nurse called the Endo residence, and Isono-san and Sasaki-san came running all the way to school, even forgetting about cars. They took Natsumi to the doctors and from then on, Natsumi hadn't been to school for three days. It wasn't that big of a deal, since Natsumi already felt better by the second day, but Isono-san insisted that she should finish all the medicine that the doctor prescribed to her.

"Those doctors don't know anything…" Natsumi grumbled.

"Don't say things like that about people who helped you get better, Natsumi-sama," Isono-san said as he backed out of the room. "I'm going to make your lunch now, so please stay put. I'll leave Natsumi-sama in your hands, Akutagawa-san."

"Leave her to me!" Chizu said in reassurance from Natsumi's bedside. She was the only one that had visited Natsumi in all three days. And in actuality, Chizu's visits were not as comforting as they should be, because the girl would only come to bombard her with questions.

"So there are new rumors today," Chizu said to Natsumi as Isono-san closed the door behind him. "Some girl said that Oishi Shuichirou was by your side the whole time in the school infirmary, and he kissed you when you were asleep!"

"…" Natsumi glared at Chizu from the corner of her eyes. "…how many times do I have to tell you that Oishi-senpai has nothing to do with me?"

"But I'm trying to make sure! You know these rumors are getting more and more believable because neither of you are denying it!" Chizu stood up and exclaimed. "What if Shishido-senpai gets the wrong idea?"

"Even if we deny it, I bet they wouldn't believe us. Rumors stick harder than truth most of the time," said Natsumi with a shrug. "And I don't think that Shishido-senpai is that kind of person that believes in rumors, anyway."

"How can you tell?" Chizu asked.

"I don't know," Natsumi shrugged again. "I guess it's just an aura he gives out."

"Well…" Chizu sat back down on her chair. "I was just trying to help you…"

Natsumi looked at Chizu with a serious expression. "Thanks, but I don't need your help. It would be cheating and any form of dishonesty should not be allowed when you're liking someone."

"Natsumi-chan…"

"But in other less important situations in life, it's all right to cheat!" Natsumi said as she pushed her blanket off of herself and slid off the bed. "I need you to do me a favor, Chizu-chan."

"Eh?" Chizu looked at Natsumi confusedly. "But I'm supposed to be watching over you!"

"There's something I must get my hands on," said Natsumi. "Nobody will know. Just pretend to be me, and say that you don't want lunch when Isono-san comes back."

Before Chizu could reject her, Natsumi already climbed out of the window and made her way down. Chizu looked out of the window and Natsumi has already made it to the ground; she must've done this numerous times before. Sighing exasperatedly, Chizu locked the door and sat down on Natsumi's bed, and murmured, "This is the last time I'm doing this for you, Natsumi-chan…"

**

* * *

**

The streets of Shinjuku are always busy and crowded, and even more so today because it was the weekend and all the young people were out and about. It isn't the most pleasant place for some, because of its loudness. But Natsumi was one of the factions that liked Shinjuku. Having lived in somewhat the countryside for most of her life, Natsumi liked the liveliness of the city. Even though a very tragic accident occurred last time she came around here, she still could not hate it.

Today was a very exciting day for Natsumi. She had been waiting for a certain album release now, and it was limited edition too! In the past, releases like this were not carried by music stores in the countryside, so she always had to miss out. But now, as she walked into the huge HMV store in Shinjuku, she felt triumphant like a kid who received a giant birthday cake. Natsumi had never been in this store before, but she walked straight toward her target as if she'd been here countless times. And immediately, she saw what she wanted.

"There's only one left!" Natsumi thought to herself as she took a big step forward and reached for the CD. However, another touched its glossy wrapping at the same time as her. Natsumi's head shot up to where the arm lead to, and widened her eyes at the sight.

"…Shishido-senpai?"

"Ah, Endo, it's you," Shishido looked down at the person who'd just grabbed for the same CD as him. Suddenly the boy felt nervous, as he didn't expect to see Natsumi at this place.

"Shishido-senpai," Natsumi looked down at the CD that they were both reaching for and looked back up at his face, with a little hint of anticipation. "You listen to B'z too?"

"Um…" it took Shishido a couple of second to realize that Natsumi was asking him a question. "Oh, yeah. Yeah, I do."

"That's great! Although I already expected Shishido-senpai to be the kind that listens to this type of music," Natsumi smiled shyly. "But I'm happy that we have something in common!"

"Yeah…" Shishido shifted his eyes, not knowing what to say. But when he looked down, he saw the B'z CD in front of him, and Natsumi's hand holding it out to him. He looked back at Natsumi's face and pushed it away. "No, you got it first. Take it."

Natsumi only kept pushing it back to him. "No, Shishido-senpai, it makes me more happy if you can accept something from my hands!"

"Um…" Shishido stopped resisting at the girl's suggestive comments. He blushed a little from feeling a bit bothered. "Endo, you… do you really… like me?"

Natsumi's smile fell from her face and was replaced by an innocent one. "Of course, I do!" she said without hesitation.

"Endo…" Shishido looked away as he began to get more nervous. He'd never been in this kind of situation before, nor had he ever thought that he would ever be in one. "Endo, I'm sorry, but we don't really know each other that well, and…"

"That's fine, Shishido-senpai," Natsumi said, cutting off Shishido's words. "It's not like I like you so that you could like me back, so it doesn't matter if you don't like me."

Shishido looked at the girl in surprise. Do girls usually act this way?

"So, do you not like me, Shishido-senpai?" Natsumi asked, looking into Shishido's eyes. "If you don't, can you let me keep liking you? And watch you play tennis?"

Shishido felt his face heat up. "I…"

"Natsumi-chan!"

The two youngsters looked toward the direction of the voice that called Natsumi's name. Coming their way was a mature woman with bright red lipsticks, wearing high heels and leopard-print gloves—she was clearly very rich. Shishido wasn't surprised that Natsumi would know someone of that status, since Natsumi was from a relatively rich family. But he was surprised to see the girl's face darken at the sight of the lady.

"Aunt Ageha…" Natsumi grumbled. "What are you doing here?"

"Just looking around, you know?" the elder woman fiddled with her perfect curls as she stopped in front of the two of them, eyeing Shishido from the corner of her eyes. "Observing business competitions…"

"With Aunt Ageha's business intelligence, there shouldn't be much competition," Natsumi said monotonously as she looked away.

"Oh! Natsumi-chan, you're as sweet as ever!" the woman said happily, and turned to Shishido with interest. "Boy, are you Atobe Keigo?"

"What?" Shishido was taken back by the sudden question.

"Atobe-kun, my daughter has been _so_ excited that you'll be attending her birthday party!" the woman said without letting Shishido finish. "If you're looking for a present for her, she really likes that perfume store right across the street!"

The woman left after throwing them a wink. And when Shishido looked back to where Natsumi was standing, she was already gone.

**

* * *

**

TBC.


	8. Step 08

A/N: Hi guys! Sorry if this story is a bit boring at this point. I can understand because I intended this story to be very lightly flavored. I don't plan on changing the plot to be more exciting either, because I want this story to be personal to the character Endo Natsumi. Thank you for reading!

**Learning to Fly**

"I'm looking for Endo Natsumi. Is she here?"

The whole classroom, at least the people who were still there during lunch break, turned their heads toward the boy who had visited Momoshiro and Natsumi's classroom. Natsumi, Momoshiro, Kikumaru, and Oishi were all there. It said to be a make-up for the get-together that didn't work out last time. Natsumi, being the one that was addressed, also looked toward the classroom door. Standing outside was a tall and handsome boy with soft, sandy hair. He caught Natsumi's gaze, and gave her a friendly smile.

"Who is that, nya?" Kikumaru asked, eyeing the stranger cautiously. "Natsumi-chan, do you know him?"

"I don't know," Natsumi answered honestly.

"He looks sort of familiar," said Oishi. "But I can't quite remember from where…"

"Anyway, I'll go see what he wants," said Natsumi, getting up from her seat. However, Kikumaru immediately grabbed Natsumi's arm and forced her to sit down. Natsumi looked at the redhead questioningly, and he shook his head at her like a little kid. "Don't go, Natsumi-chan! You're eating with us, nya!"

"I'll be back, Kikumaru-senpai," Natsumi said, trying to get up again.

When Kikumaru wanted to pull her down again, Oishi stopped him. "Eiji, it's not polite to make that person wait outside. Go ahead, Endo!"

"Oishi!" Kikumaru pouted as he watched Natsumi make her way toward the door. "How could you let her go, nya! After all I've done to help you, and you just let her go to another guy!"

"What?" Oishi looked at Kikumaru weirdly. "What are you talking about?"

"Eiji-senpai," Momoshiro joined in on Oishi's side. "You've been acting weird lately, and it's always about Oishi and Natsumi. What's going on?"

"It's because—"

"I'm back," Natsumi suddenly appeared behind Kikumaru, making him jump in his seat. The three boys turned their heads at her. "What did he say?"

"He said that he wanted to see me after school in the chemistry room."

"AHHH!" Kikumaru exclaimed, earning himself strange looks from the other three. "I knew it! He made a move before Oishi! This is terrible, nya!"

**Step08: What You'd Call, On a Mission**

As bad as it sounds, Natsumi wasn't a girl who often kept her promises. It wasn't because she wanted to annoy people on purpose, but because she forgets easily. When it came to things that she didn't particularly care about, she usually didn't spare much memory space for them. However, this time, Natsumi actually remembered to go to the chemistry room in the afternoon. Natsumi usually remembered roughly one thing out of five, and this one just happened to be lucky. Maybe it was just chance, maybe it was fate, but she absolutely did not expect her life to change with just one single step like this one.

When Natsumi went into the chemistry room, there was nobody in there. Bright afternoon light shined through the window and hit the shiny surface of the desks. The desks and chairs were pushed to the sides of the room, leaving only three in the middle. There was a book bag left on one of the three chairs. But all those observations aside, the one thing that Natsumi noticed first was the drums set in the corner of the room. It wasn't a big and fancy one, but it was still surprising to see one in the chemistry room. She walked toward the drums set and looked at it carefully. The drums surface had many marks on them; they must've been used a lot. And then, she found two drumsticks laying there, with the words "Kigawa" written on them.

"Who are you?"

Natsumi swerved around at the voice that asked the question. Standing just around the doorway was a young girl with straight black hair tied in a pony tail. The girl had dark, sharp eyes with long eyelashes; doubtlessly a pretty girl. However, she looked at Natsumi and the drums set menacingly as if Natsumi had intruded her personal space.

"I'm Endo Natsumi," Natsumi answered straightforwardly. "I was told to come here after school."

The black-haired girl narrowed her eyes, and spoke with hostility. "Yeah, right. What are you really here for? Okada-kun? Or maybe even Kiyoshi-kun?"

"I don't know who you're talking about," Natsumi said. She didn't know why the girl was being so unfriendly, but she didn't want to ask. Everyone has their bad days, and it's not like Natsumi was particularly friendly to others regularly.

The other girl, however, didn't seem to buy what Natsumi was saying. She folded her arms in front of her chest and glared at Natsumi with daggers. "I really hate girls like you. Aren't you ashamed of yourself?" the girl started to fire at Natsumi. "You all come here in order to get close to Okada-kun, but none of you really appreciate the type of thing we do! You guys only like Okada-kun for his looks, and you guys don't even understand him at all! Okada-kun will never be interested in girls like you! The only person that deserves Okada-kun is Ishida-sen—"

"What's going on, Kigawa?"

The door to the chemistry room suddenly slid open and two boys stood in the door way. The girl named Kigawa turned around to see who came, and immediately closed her mouth at the sight. Natsumi recognized one of the boys—the sandy-haired boy who asked her to come here at lunch break. The other boy was looking into the room with a confused smile; he had a clean buzz-cut and looked quite refreshing. "These two must be Okada-kun and Kiyoshi-kun that Kigawa was talking about," thought Natsumi. The boy with the sandy hair also noticed Natsumi's presence, and broke into a smile and waved at her.

"Ah! Endo, you're here!" the boy said pleasantly. "Good! I was afraid that you wouldn't come!"

"Okada-kun, you know this girl?" Kigawa asked.

"Yeah, she's the one that I was talking about!" the sandy-haired boy named Okada said excitedly. "Remember? The girl who was playing my guitar and singing after school? I said that I was going to bring her in!"

"This is the girl?" The boy with the buzz-cut, now known as Kiyoshi-kun, hopped over in front of Natsumi and studied her up and down. "She's cute, Okada! But she looks like a complete different style from Ishida-senpai, though…"

Okada only smiled in response, and turned to a shocked Kigawa. "What were you yelling about, Kigawa?"

Kigawa twitched from Okada's question and looked away with a faint blush. "I… I thought she was one of those girls who always come to harass you, so I yelled at her…"

"Eh?"

"Hahahaha!" the boy named Kiyoshi laughed, pointing at Okada. "Okada, your popularity makes it so hard for us!" he patted Natsumi on the shoulder. "Don't worry, kid! Sanae-chan is usually really nice, but she just thought you were another one of Okada's fangirls!"

Natsumi did not reply to the boy and just stared at the three of them with an expressionless face. All these names were just popping out of nowhere and she was getting lost. Okada noticed the awkwardness rising and stepped in between them. He whipped up a friendly smile and shook her hand gently.

"Let me reintroduce myself. I'm Okada Takeru and…" he gestured to his two friends behind him; first the girl and then the boy. "That's Kigawa Sanae, and that's Funegoshi Kiyoshi. We're all third years here."

Natsumi nodded at each one of them, and still held on to her expressionless face. "I'm Endo Natsumi, a second year…"

"Great!" Okada said. "Now I just want to cut straight to the business. I thought you had a lot of talent when you played on my guitar that day. I want to invite you to join our band!"

"Band?" Natsumi's ears perked up at this.

According to Okada, the three of them along with another girl, Ishida Keiko, who had graduated moved to America last year, formed a band at the school. They made it into their club activity and even got the chemistry room to be their club room after school. The four of them, together as "Four-Leaf," became quite popular in Seishun Gakuen. Ishida Keiko, who was one year everyone's senior, was the leader who first started the band. She had a great voice and personality, so everyone at the school loved her. Okada was the lead guitarist, Kigawa played the drums, and Funegoshi played the bass. They had several gigs during school festivals and had a lot of support from the students. But ever since Ishida Keiko left, the band went downhill. Without a vocalist, the band's gigs became less and less, and they couldn't find a replacement at all. Most of the girls who came to tryout only came to get close to Okada because of his good looks; they didn't have actual talent at all. The band was on the verge of breaking up sooner or later.

"You want me to join the band and immediately become the lead vocalist?" Natsumi repeated Okada's request with a bit of surprise. "Isn't that a bit soon? I'm only a second year and I've just met you all right now."

"There's nobody at this school that can take this position other than you. You have a unique voice and I don't want that to go to waste," Okada insisted. "The Culture Festival is in a couple of months. I want to have enough time for you to get acquainted with us and practice. We'll put on the best show during the Culture Festival!"

"But…" Natsumi hesitated. She was more than excited about the idea of being in a band again, but she was also a little worried. Natsumi wasn't good at commitments. And what if she couldn't get along with the other members? What if she disappoints them at the Culture Festival?

"Come on, kiddo! You have nothing to lose!" Funegoshi said, cheering Natsumi on by her side. "I've never seen you play, but I trust Okada's eyes!"

Okada nodded and turned to Kigawa, who was leaning against the window a few feet away. "What do you think, Kigaway?"

The light shining through the window made Kigawa's figure hidden in shadow. None of them could see the expression on her face, but it was clear that she wasn't too happy about the sudden addition of Natsumi into their circle.

"Usually, I trust Okada-kun's decisions," said Kigawa coolly. "But I want to see if you actually have talent. Too many girls have come with nothing to contribute at all. If you can't compare to Ishida-senpai's standards, I won't accept you."

"Hey, Sanae-chan! Don't be so harsh!"

"Be quiet, Kiyoshi-kun!" Kigawa silenced him with one glare. "I want Four-Leaf to revive too, but I don't want it to come back as something less than what it was before. It won't be fair to Ishida-senpai!"

Natsumi stared at Kigawa as she gave her speech passionately. _I see…_ Natsumi thought. _It's not because she doesn't like me. It's because she likes Okada-senpai…_

"Okada-senpai, do you have your guitar right now?"

"Eh?" Okada turned to Natsumi, who had suddenly spoken. "Of course, why?"

"I'll probably never be able to replace that legendary Ishida-senpai," said Natsumi, looking at Kigawa in the eyes. "But that doesn't I won't be able to make Four-Leaf better than before."

To love someone, and to be a part of what he loves to do was something anyone would dream of. Kigawa Sanae must have been really happy in the past, where she could be around whom she loved and do what she loved without anyone's interference. Even if Okada Takeru didn't like her back, she must have been satisfied with it all. The past with Ishida Keiko around was perfect, but it's never going to come back. Natsumi saw a feeling that she could relate to when Kigawa was speaking. Those days in the past is never going to come back. But something new may come along, and it might be even better than anything you've ever experienced.

**

* * *

**

"Natsumi-chan, over here!"

Natsumi looked over to the redhead waving at her from a distance. The sun's ray hit her face directly and made her eyes squint. It was just another weekend in late spring. Natsumi was invited to go to Seigaku's tennis match against a school called Fudoumine by none other than Kikumaru Eiji. It's quite strange, but Natsumi began to remember her plans and promises better lately. It might be caused by her newest commitment in her life—the band called Four-Leaf.

Natsumi had impressed the three veteran members of the band that afternoon in the chemistry room. As much as Kigawa Sanae didn't want to admit it, the young girl had a unique and different attitude when it came to performing. And eventually, practicing with the band after school became an everyday thing. Natsumi gradually got used to the drill of remembering, and she forgot less and less.

"Natsumi-chan, you're late!" the childish senior pouted as Natsumi came closer. "Me and Oishi's match just ended!"

She still had a little problem with being on time though.

"Sorry," Natsumi apologized shortly, and handed a clean, white towel to Oishi as instructed by Kikumaru. "I didn't get to see it, but if it's Oishi-senpai and Kikumaru-senpai, it should've been an easy win."

"Thanks, Endo," Oishi took the towel from her bashfully, his face slightly red. "Although, you shouldn't look down on our opponent like that. Fudoumine is really strong this year. Eiji and I had quite a challenge."

"Are they?" Natsumi asked, moving her gaze toward the tennis courts. Kaidou Kaoru was playing against a skinny redhead, and he was indeed having a hard time. They were moving onto the seventh game, and both players were giving their best. The opponent's speed was first class; even Natsumi could tell just by watching.

"Yeah, their team went through a lot of hardships," Oishi said, watching the game intently as well. "But they proved that they overcame them all. They're aiming for the top."

Kikumaru looked back and forth at the two of them, and sighed exasperated. _The first long conversation between them is about tennis… Well, it's better than nothing, nya~_

For the rest of the match, Natsumi sat in between Kikumaru and Oishi and watched quietly. The last set was between Echizen Ryoma and Fudoumine's Ibu Shinji. Natsumi was at first interested in how well the cocky first-year played, and was surprised to find out that he was way better than she'd expected. The boy wasn't taking his opponent seriously at all, yet he could play at the same level as the elder boy. However, Natsumi didn't praise or cheer on the boy like his teammates were. A slight frown formed in between her brows.

"It's not good to underestimate people…" Natsumi murmured. "Even if you were on a winning streak… unexpected things can always happen…"

"Eh?" Oishi turned to look at Natsumi. "What did you say?"

"Nothing," Natsumi answered shortly. _Life always gives you surprises…_

As if answering to Natsumi's words, Ryoma's play started to become stiff. Soon, he wasn't able to make a full swing. It was all planned by the opponent; Ryoma was in a pinch. And when he tried to use his body to return the ball, his racket slipped out of his hands, snapped by the net's pole, and flew right back at his eye. The sharp edge of the broken racket cut across his eyelid deeply. Blood dripped from the wound as the boy bent down in pain.

"Echizen!"

"Ryoma-kun!"

Several of the boy's teammates stood up with concern. A girl with long braids ran onto the court to pull him up, but the boy pushed her away and told her to get off the court. The team called timeout, and Oishi took out the emergency box to try to stop the bleeding. Natsumi looked at Ryoma's face through the cracks between his worried teammates. Ryoma's uninjured eye was wide open. The cat-like eyes were still focused on the court; his lips shut tight, itching to go back and play.

"…" Natsumi stepped back and made her way out of the tennis courts. If she stayed, she might become a nuisance. But she wasn't too worried about the wounded boy. "…I guess Tigerlily is still going to win."

Natsumi walked slowly along the street while watching other schools' tennis matches. The boys put all of their hearts into the sport. Every breath and every drop of sweat illuminated the drag of everyday life. One moment, Natsumi laughed to herself at how silly they were for chasing a small yellow ball with everything they had. And another moment, she admired their passion. Even if they weren't the best, they still kept on going. Who knows when they'll ever give up? Maybe never. But how many of them will actually become a professional player in the future? Probably not many. That's why she never wanted to grow up; choosing only one thing to define yourself for the rest of your life was too sad of an idea to her.

A nice breeze blew at Natsumi's long hair; she grabbed a handful of hair and smoothed it out. It was something she never had to do when she had short hair. She had always wondered, "what was Endo Natsumi's passion? What kind of person was she? Am I living up to what she used to be?"

"Help! Stop that thief!"

Natsumi turned around to see a man dressed in all black dash right past her. An older woman waved around her cane helplessly. Natsumi swerved around again, spotting a feminine purse secured under the man's underarm. She narrowed her eyes, and stopped a boy who was about to lock his bicycle.

"Let me borrow this," she said as she snatched the bike from his grasp and got on. "I'll return this to you!"

"Hey! Wait!"

Natsumi didn't listen to the boy and started to pedal rapidly. The thief noticed that she was chasing him, and started running faster. Natsumi almost caught up to the man, but he jumped through a bush and ran down a hill toward a neighborhood park. Natsumi clicked her tongue and made a sharp turn before running into the bush. Knowing a short cut to the park, she quickly turned the bike to that direction. The only thing was that there was a long flight of staircase to go down. Getting to the staircase in a few seconds, Natsumi wasn't slowing down. If she could do it with a skateboard, she could do it with a bicycle.

The bike flew into the air with the speed that the girl was going at. The girl's shadow loomed over a group of young men walking casually toward the tennis courts. Natsumi recognized them. She was definitely going to crash if she didn't let him know.

"Shishido-senpai! Move out of the way!" she shouted.

The boy and his teammates looked in shock as they saw Natsumi descend from the sky with her bike. Shishido quickly backed away, as well as his team captain, who had quite a speedy respond time. But Natsumi couldn't be relieved just yet. As the two boys moved out of her way, a fire hydrant came into view. Natsumi knew it was over the moment she saw it. She couldn't do anything in mid-air, and she couldn't tell the fire hydrant to move. She put out her arms to avoid as much damage as she could.

_Crash!_

"Endo!"

Natsumi felt a pair of strong hands on her shoulder that helped her up from her kneeling position. From the corner of her eyes, she saw one of the bicycle's wheels rolling a few feet away. And then, being flipped over, Natsumi saw several faces hovering over hers. One worried, one bewildered, one frowning, one with a hand over his mouth. However, she only met the eyes of one boy—Shishido Ryou, who was the one that helped her up and supported her. And then, a splash of red traveled from the top of her view to the bottom. It stung and made her close her eye.

"Hey! Are you okay?" Shishido asked, his body tensed at the horrid red that poured from the girl's forehead and forearms.

Everyone was shocked when they saw that Natsumi was heading straight for the fire hydrant, but none of them could've saved her. Shishido could still see clearly the impact of Natsumi's fall; her arms scraped against the concrete floor, attempting to avoid the fire hydrant, but ended up hitting her forehead against it.

"I really shouldn't underestimate stairs anymore…" Natsumi murmured painfully.

"Endo-san, your gash is really deep!" Ohtori said anxiously from the side. "We need to take her to the hospital!"

"Oshitari, call your family's clinic right now!"

"Don't worry, you're going to be okay," Shishido said in reassurance.

Natsumi looked up at Shishido weakly. "No… it's too late… this is the end for me…"

"What are you talking about, Endo?" Shishido said quickly. "You're not going to—"

"Take me to see my parents in Shizuoka one last time, please…" Natsumi strained out her words. "And then… please… let my body join with the ocean in death…"

And then, Natsumi fell unconscious. The Hyoutei tennis team fell into silence at Natsumi's last words. Especially Shishido, who saw a strange, accomplished smile on Natsumi's face before she blacked out. Not until a couple of minutes later did Atobe break the silence.

"Stupid woman…" Atobe said with constraint. "…what parents in Shizuoka?"

**

* * *

**

TBC.


	9. Step 09

**Learning to Fly**

_Where am I?_

Natsumi looked around to find herself in an unfamiliar Western-style room. It was nighttime and the room was dimly lit by one candle. In the room there were three beds. It seemed like two of the beds were being occupied by two boys sleeping, and the third, she was sitting upright on. She looked down at herself and raised her eyebrows at the pajama dress she was wearing. This wasn't her room for sure. But she couldn't quite remember what happened before she fell asleep. She was living inside the body of a girl named… _what was her name again?_

_Thump!_

She swerved her head toward the window, which suddenly slammed open. She saw a green figure flash before her, and went toward the other side of the room. She widened her eyes as she recognized the boy in green, who was now wrestling with a shadow. She stood up from her bed and approached the boy. She knew this scene too well.

"Peter Pan?" she asked, although she was sure of the answer.

The boy turned to look at her with a shocked expression. She smiled and forgot all about her questions from before.

"Silly boy," she said, taking out a needle and some threads from nowhere. "That's not how you attach your shadow back on!"

The boy stared at her questioningly, but let her sow his shadow onto the bottom of his shoes. The boy's shadow was stitched to him in no time.

"Thanks, Wendy!" the boy said.

_Oh, yeah, Wendy. That was my name._

"Well, to thank me for helping you stitch back you shadow, you should give me a kiss."

Despite of the boy's confused expression, she leaned forward.

**Step09: Surprise Kiss**

The Hyoutei boys tennis team waited patiently outside the emergency room in Oshitari's family's clinic. Although it wasn't life-threatening, Natsumi still had to get nine stitches on the side of her head. The number sounded terrifying, but the doctor reassured the boys that Natsumi wasn't in any trouble besides a small concussion. She would be fine with a few days rest. The tennis team was relieved at this point, because they have all had some sort of injury when they played tennis, but the same thing could not be said for Natsumi's guardians. Atobe took responsibility in calling Natsumi's aunt, who was in charge of the girl ever since her parents died. However, the busy woman did not pick up the phone.

"Damn woman…" Atobe cursed under his breath as he heard the busy tone from Natsumi's phone. "Pick up the phone! I, Atobe Keigo, have far more important things to do than you!"

"Calm down, Atobe," said Oshitari, putting a hand on his team captain's shoulder. "Search the phone for another number to call."

"You think _I_ haven't thought of that?" Atobe asked hotly as he waved the girl's phone in his hand. "There are only _six_ people on the contact list! The damn aunt, Isono-san and Sasaki-san, whoever those two are, our useless manager Akutagawa Chizu, and Kikumaru Eiji and Momoshiro Takeshi from Seigaku."

"What? What happened to our numbers?" Mukahi raised a question, cocking his head to the side. "Why did she delete out numbers?"

"Atobe, did you say Sasaki-san?" Shishido said suddenly.

"Yeah, what about it?"

"I think that's Endou's bodyguard," said Shishido, recalling that strange day by the alley, when he was saved by a group of Natsumi's bodyguards.

Atobe raised an eyebrow. "How would you know that? That woman has so many bodyguards and butlers _I_ don't even remember their names."

"Uh… I've met him before."

After sending him another weird look, Atobe called the number belonging to Sasaki-san. The call seemed to have gone through and they started talking. After a few minutes, Atobe hung up with an irritated expression on his face. "The guy went ballistic after hearing that she's hurt, how ungraceful," Atobe said with patience running out in his voice. "Anyway, they're on their way here. We can leave now. Shishido, you stay here to explain what happened."

"What?" Shishido frowned at Atobe. "Oi! Why do I have to stay?"

"Because you know the guy!" Atobe said as if it was an obvious thing. "Besides, you didn't finish your match within fifteen minutes today. It's a punishment for slacking off!"

Anger sparked inside Shishido; he walked up to his captain, "Don't go overboard, Atobe! I'm the only regular playing in the preliminaries; you can let anyone else try—"

"It's okay, Shishido-senpai! Atobe-senpai!" Ohtori stepped in between the two third-years. Although not being in the same year as the two, Ohtori knew how they didn't get along that well. And it would be bad to start a quarrel in the hospital. "Shishido-senpai, I'll stay here with you. I'm worried about Endou-san, too!"

"Ohtori…" Shishido stared at the youngster momentarily before nodding in hesitation. "Fine… I'll stay here."

"Hmph!" Atobe threw him a cocky smile, and lead the rest of the team out of the hospital.

Shishido and Ohtori sat quietly on the bench outside of the emergency room, each of them with different thoughts in their minds. Ohtori was mainly worried about all the blood that was gushing out from Natsumi's head. On the other hand, Shishido was more in confusion about what she said right before she fell unconscious. It was all for show, Shishido knew that part. Ever since that day in the alley, Shishido noticed how Natsumi liked to dramatize things. But it was all really weird because she never used to do that. Shishido began to think that he never knew the girl at all. However, suddenly, she started showing a lot of affection towards him to the extent that it didn't make sense!

It took longer for Natsumi's guardians to arrive than what Shishido had thought. The doctor had already finished the stitching and moved Natsumi to another room to rest. The two boys looked at the injured one; thick rolls of bandage tied around her forehead but she had such a peaceful expression. So they were both a bit relieved. They followed the nurses to Natsumi's new room, and Ohtori decided to go outside and wait for Natsumi's guardians since they didn't where where Natsumi's new room was. Shishido nodded and stayed. And as the nurses came out of the room and held the door open for him to go in, he felt an instant awkwardness, but still went in out of instinct and mumbled a thanks to the nurse. He didn't really want to go in at all.

Even though Natsumi was dead asleep, Shishido still stood a couple of feet away from the bed. For that whole time, he didn't know why was in there and what he was going to do. And then he saw it—a small smile crept up to her face. At that moment, Shishido was surprised, more at himself than the fact that Natsumi was smiling in her sleep. She looked a bit cute just now.

_What am I thinking…? _Shishido shook his head to make it clear, but it didn't quite work.

In fact, most people would agree that Endo Natsumi was one of the cuter girls on the street. It's just that the eccentric way that she acted didn't really link to her appearance, that's why Shishido never noticed. And to think that he was holding her so closely earlier today, he should've felt a bit more embarrassed. But it was an emergency situation, right?

"Pe… pete… sha… dow…"

Shishido was pulled out of his trance by the weak mumbling of Natsumi. To hear better, Shishido went closer to Natsumi. The girl's mouth opened a bit and her lips moved so slightly that they looked as if they were shivering. Broken words came from inside; it was barely audible. Shishido leaned in out of curiosity.

"Thank… gi… kis…"

Shishido was horrified. The young girl's hand suddenly reached up and lightly touched his neck. Shishido twitched from her cold fingers, and was immobilized for a couple of seconds. And within those seconds, Natsumi's face came up close to his, and before he knew it, the girl's soft lips were fixed to his. And just when Shishido realized what was going on, Natsumi's head fell right back to the pillow. What shocked him even more was the next three seconds, when Natsumi's eyes fluttered open, and closed up again for the rest of the time even until Ohtori and her two servants came rushing in.

**

* * *

**

Nights at the hospital were quiet and lonely, but Natsumi was lucky to not have to experience that kind of feeling during her stay at the hospital. As if knowing how much Natsumi hated being at the hospital by herself, listening to the ticking of the clock sleeplessly, Isono-san had the hospital arrange a private room for her and allowed twenty-four-hour visiting hours. Even though it was enough that Isono-san and Sasaki-san kept her company through the nights, Natsumi was still a little bit happy that she had friends who visited her during the day.

The person who came to visit on the first day was Akutagawa Chizu. It was the morning of a Monday, which meant that she probably skipped her club duties and classes to visit. Natsumi was grateful that the girl sacrificed so much just to come visit, but she wished that Chizu hadn't when the girl started to talk on and on about what happened with the tennis club after her accident.

"Atobe-senpai seemed to be unreasonably angry with your aunt," said Chizu, as if the matter was of importance to Natsumi, but it really wasn't. "I heard that he canceled his plan to attend Aunt Ageha's daughter's birthday party. 'I don't want anything to do with that woman!' he said!"

"Oh?" Natsumi said with half-hearted interest as she wolfed down the strawberry cheesecake that Chizu brought for her. "That guy's still as narcissistic as ever."

"That's not all!" Chizu scooted closer to Natsumi's bed, getting more and more excited. "I also heard that Atobe-senpai's been in a foul mood lately. A couple of days ago, I heard that he went to a street tennis courts in the neighborhood, and harassed a girl from Fudoumine. And that girl turned out to be Fudoumine's tennis club captain, Tachibana Kippei's sister!"

"Fudoumine?" Natsumi repeated the familiar name to herself. "Ah, it's that team."

"Natsumi-chan, you know that team?"

"I've seen them play against my school once. They were really strong."

"Not as strong as Shishido-senpai, right?" Chizu grinned.

Natsumi pondered silently for a moment. "I don't know. Shishido-senpai is the strongest to me no matter what, but winning or losing doesn't determine that."

On the next day, the three members of Four-Leaf came to the hospital. Natsumi's private room instantly became loud when they entered. The loudest was none other than Funegoshi, who jumped around the room, admiring it and calling it "the rich's privilege." Kigawa looked as if she didn't want to be there, but Okada told Natsumi that she was the one that dragged them around to pick out fruits to bring for her.

"I was just worried that we won't have a fourth member when the Culture Festival comes, that's all!" Kigawa growled like a baby lion, but a little red in the face.

"Hahaha! No need to feel embarrassed about it, Sanae-chan!" Funegoshi laughed and patted his bandmate on the shoulder.

"Thanks for coming to see me," said Natsumi, lightly patting on the huge watermelon that the trio brought for her. It made a heavy sound and rebounded back to her palm. It must be a really juicy one. "Watermelon is in season…"

Kigawa studied Natsumi's face, eyes lingering on the bandages wrapped around her forehead, and then looked away. "You better eat it all."

"Yes, it's picked by Kigawa; that means it must be a lucky watermelon," Okada said cheerfully. "Endo will get better in no time! What can I say, we really need you in the band, Endo!"

Natsumi looked up at Okada questioningly, and the boy smiled down at her.

"I think we're ready to select the song to perform at the Culture Festival!"

And then on the next day, Kikumaru, Oishi, and Momoshiro came to visit after practice. Kikumaru practically mauled her when he got into the room, thinking that she was on the verge of dying. And then, after being pried off by Oishi, he finally decided to calm down and bring the numerous bags of junk food that he got from a local convenient store. Natsumi beamed at all the chips and soda; the hospital food just didn't fit her taste.

"Sorry, Endo, we couldn't get you any fresh fruit since we just got out of practice," said Oishi, but he was glad that Natsumi seemed happy to be munching away on the junk food.

"It's okay," Natsumi said with food stuffed in her mouth. Crumbs stuck to the outside of her mouth when she opened it. "I much prefer junk food than what I can get here."

Kikumaru's eyes sparkled at Natsumi's face for an instant, and then turned to whisper in Oishi's ear, "Oishi! She has crumbs on her face!" And he handed his partner a handkerchief, which earned himself a strange look from his doubles partner.

"Why don't you—"

"You do it, nya!" Kikumaru whispered commandingly.

Oishi raised an eyebrow at Kikumaru's behavior, but took the handkerchief anyway. Turning back to Natsumi, he handed it to her casually and she took it casually as well. And then, he saw Kikumaru's shoulders slump in a disappointed way, which made Oishi more confused.

"By the way, how did you get hurt like this on the weekend?" Momoshiro asked out of the blue. "Weren't you watching our match with Fudoumine that day?"

"I left in the middle of it, maybe you didn't notice," said Natsumi as she gulped down the melon soda. "So did the little one win?"

"Of course! Ochibi is our freshman ace!" Kikumaru said proudly.

"That's good," Natsumi nodded and her eyes averted toward the window. The sun was setting into the west. Tomorrow, she will be released from the hospital. And for the rest of the day, the Seigaku tennis club trio stayed until the sun completely set, talking to her about random things and kept her company. Natsumi didn't mind their presence at all, but she felt just a little bit empty when the three boys left for home.

Shishido Ryou—the one that she'd wished to visit her the most—didn't come in the end.

**

* * *

**

"Eiji, do you like Endo?"

Oishi blurted out the question when he and his partner were on their way home. He had been thinking ever since the handkerchief incident. He thought back to the beginning when they first met Endo Natsumi. He knew that Kikumaru was a friendly and outgoing person; the guy can become someone's close friend in a couple of seconds. He thought that friendship was it, but Kikumaru started to act strange at the same time that rumors about himself and Natsumi started. Maybe those rumors made Kikumaru feel uncomfortable? And then, Kikumaru started to visit Momoshiro and Natsumi's classroom a lot more often. And later, he even dragged Oishi into eating lunch with them. Could it be that he wanted emotional support?

And now that he thought more about it, Kikumaru was the first one to notice Natsumi gone during that match with Fudoumine, and he looked disappointed too. And today, he was the one that dragged them to the hospital to visit. Everything was pointing to a certain direction, and even though Oishi wasn't the gossiping kind, he wanted to know the truth.

"Wha…what?"

Kikumaru looked at Oishi with widened eyes and blanked. Judging by his big reaction, Oishi was even more convinced.

"So it's true…"

"What are you talking about, Oishi!" Eiji rushed in front of Oishi's face and grabbed him by the shoulders, exclaiming. "You've got it all wrong! How could you think that I like Natsumi-chan? You… YOU'RE THE ONE THAT LIKES HER!"

"What?" it was Oishi's turn to blank this time. "I like Endo? But I don't—"

"Yes you do!" Eiji said stubbornly. "You're supposed to! I can tell!"

"'You're not making sense, Eiji!" Oishi said, prying the oversized cat off his shoulders. "What do you mean I'm _supposed_ to like her?"

"Because Natsumi-chan likes you too!"

"…Eh?"

**

* * *

**

TBC.


	10. Step 10

**Learning to Fly**

"Where are you going, Natsumi-sama?"

"Nowhere far."

"Natsumi-sama, you have just been released from the hospital. Please be careful wherever you're going."

Natsumi paused in her shoe-tying position. She turned her head around slowly to study her bodyguard's face. Sasaki-san's face today was as stoic as usual; you can never tell if he was happy or angry, mainly because of those black shades that he always wore. But even with a poker face, Natsumi felt something wrong with Sasaki-san today. Normally, everyone would try to stop her from going outside by herself, especially now that she has injured herself doing something as wild as chasing down a thief. However, to let her go with just a small warning was something she was unfamiliar with.

"Sasaki-san," Natsumi addressed the elder man; she was always straightforward with her feelings. "Why are you just letting me go without sending bodyguards with me? I mean, I'm not complaining."

"I just think that Natsumi-sama isn't a child anymore. You should know better than to cause trouble," Sasaki-san answered calmly. "You know already that all of us are worried about you."

Natsumi looked down at her feet at this; her eyes darkened. Isono-san was on a sick leave. Ever since Natsumi was hospitalized, Isono-san had been the one working the hardest. He took care of everything for her, running out to buy whatever she wanted and called the doctor over if anything seemed wrong. He was also the one that worried the most, not that he wasn't before her hospitalization. But after the physical and emotional fatigue, Isono-san fell ill. Although he insisted on resuming to work right away, Natsumi and Sasaki-san both pushed him to go back home and rest.

When Natsumi thought about how old Isono-san suddenly looked that day, she always felt guilty. She was always the one that didn't want anyone to worry about her, but she was also the one that always got herself into trouble. Isono-san must be sick and tired of taking care of her all the time.

If only there was a way to be a child forever, and have that thing called responsibility at the same time.

**Step10: Cliché Shows True Love**

"Game Ohtori, 1-0!"

There's a reason why Hyoutei has one of the strongest tennis teams in the Kantou region; team members were dragged to practice even on the weekends. But with these rigorous trainings, the regulars have no complaints about any of it. Although, some people might slack off a bit, and there are times when some are just having an "off" day. Ohtori Choutarou stood in the breeze, breathing smoothly and barely sweating, and looked onto his opponent on the other side of the court. The latter was not out of breath, and he was not tired either, but his eyes were drifting and his heart was not inside the tennis court at all.

"Hm, it's rare for Shishido to lose a game this fast," Oshitari commented, looking toward his captain for an agreement. "And it's even his service game."

"This guy's been unfocused for a whole week," Atobe said as he brought his long fingers up to touch the beauty mark under his eye. Being the observant person that he was, of course Atobe already noticed something wrong with the usually confident third year. "But whatever he's thinking about, he needs to snap out of it. The game with Fudoumine is in a week. He's not allowed to lose before we begin the semi-finals. Ne, Kabaji?"

"Ussu."

Out of audible range, Shishido could not hear the conversation between his teammates, but he knew very well that the two were talking about him. He, too, understood that he was unfocused, and that he needed to snap out of it. But he just couldn't help it when his mind wanders off to the incident a week ago—the incident in the hospital with Endo Natsumi.

He could not stop the questions that keep circling around his head. Did that really count as a kiss? No, she could've been just waking up, and accidently touched his lips with hers. But how is it that she fell unconscious again after that? Well, she did have a concussion; her head must've hurt again. And her eyes were definitely open when her head was against the pillow. Did she see that it was him? Did she know that they kissed? Wait, no, that wasn't a kiss. But if she did see, would she think of it as a kiss? Would she think that he was taking advantage of her while she was down? For some reason, he felt like he was taking advantage of her, because he never confronted her about it. But what was he supposed to say? Sorry? No, that's not it. He should ask her if she knew about the ki—what happened. But how could he bring himself to ask her that!

Shishido's mind was a big mess. And naturally, Shishido lost the match to Ohtori, which has never happened before. Even when practice was over and the boys were inside the locker room changing, Shishido was still abnormally quiet. The younger boy approached his senior with soft steps, and looked at him with concern.

"Shishido-senpai, is everything okay?"

Shishido shifted his gaze toward Ohtori, but he did so too fast and missed the younger boy's eyes. Pulling it back, Shishido blinked a few times before focusing on him. "Yes, of course. Why wouldn't I be okay?"

"Well…" Ohtori frowned at the elder boy's act of unease. "It just seems to me that something's on your mind…"

"Don't worry about me, Choutarou!" Shishido smiled reassuringly, and patted Choutarou's arm, even though he was originally going to pat him on the shoulder. "You beat me fair and square. You've improved a lot!"

"Shishido-senpai…"

"Shisihido-san! Someone's out there asking for you!"

"Huh?" Shishido turned his head toward the opened door and raised an eyebrow at the underclassman that came calling for him. "Who is it?"

The underclassman gave him a shrug. "It's a girl!"

Shishido and Ohtori exchanged a look, and the former took off toward the door first while the latter followed a bit after. Once Shishido exited the locker room and looked ahead, his heart skipped a beat. He knew all too well the slim figure standing outside the fence with her long, brown hair covering her small shoulders. He made an attempt to swallow deep inside his throat, but there was nothing to swallow. Never in his life, not even during big competitions, had he been this nervous before.

"Ah! It's Endo-san!"

Ohtori's surprised voice traveled to Shishido's ears way later than he'd realized; his younger friend was already making his way toward the fence to greet the girl. But Shishido found it hard to lift his own legs. It was too soon to see her right now. He hasn't decided on what to say yet. However, as he was panicking inside of his head, Ohtori had already opened the gate for her and let her in. The girl advanced at him with her soft smile, although a tiny bit different than usual, and stopped a couple of feet away from him.

"Shishido-senpai, how are you?"

Shishido swallowed again in his dry throat before opening his mouth. "I'm… great. But you—I should be asking you… how's your head? I mean, how do you feel?"

"I feel fine," Natsumi said, not noticing the boy's nervousness. "Actually, I came here to find Shishido-senpai for the hospital thing…"

Shishido suddenly felt like he was punched in the chest. He didn't want to face this confrontation yet! He wasn't ready!

"I heard from Sasaki-san and Isono-san that Shishido-senpai and Ohtori-kun were the one that carried me to the hospital and stayed after until they came," Natsumi said, trying to catch Shishido's eyes with her own. "To thank you guys, I want to treat both of you to a meal."

"Eh? A meal?" Shishido's head shot up at Natsumi's request. He'd thought she was going to bring up something up. His chest felt relieved for just one second, but he began to feel guilty again. _So she doesn't remember… or is she just pretending so that it won't be awkward…?_

"Yes, and please don't reject my invite," Natsumi pressed on. "Or else I'd feel bad about wasting so much of your time that day. I'd feel worse than I already feel."

**

* * *

**

Though already knowing about Natsumi's riches, Ohtori and Shishido still felt that it was a bit too much when she brought them to a five-star French restaurant, even if they did save her life. In the end, they pulled her down the street before she could enter the restaurant, and went into a small out-doors café. The three of them sat down around a circular table; the two boys had their hands under the table and on their knees, showing their awkwardness. However, Natsumi was just having her ordinary day and urged them to order whatever they wanted. And, of course, the boys did not dare order anything fancy besides some cold drinks.

"Please don't hold back, guys!" Natsumi pushed the menu at them. "This is the least I could do to thank you guys…"

"No, it's fine, Endo-san," Ohtori said as he put his two hands up in front of his chest. "We didn't do that much! Right, Shishido-senpai?"

Shishido's shoulders twitched at the mention of his name. He looked at Ohtori briefly and then looked at Natsumi; clearly his mind was elsewhere. "Um… yeah… it wasn't much at all!"

"It means a lot to me!" Natsumi said, eyes fixed her folded hands that rested on the table. "It's not just that you guys were there in the hospital to make sure that I was okay. But I was a burden to you guys because I made you all worried. And to think that I actually _wanted_ everyone to be worried at first… because I didn't think that anyone would be. I shouldn't be important to anyone here; I'm just a stranger! You guys could've just called the ambulance. You guys didn't have to wait at the hospital." _Sasaki-san and Isono-san didn't have to stay overnight at the hospital. No one had to come visit me. But I wanted everyone's concern… because I still don't know how mom and dad reacted when I…_

"What are you saying, Endo-san?" Ohtori leaned forward. "You're not a stranger! You took care of us so much last year at Hyotei!"

Natsumi looked up at Ohtori and her eyes wavered. "…I didn't choose to be Endo Natsumi."

The boys widened their eyes at the girl, and looked at each other in loss of words. Shishido, who didn't know the girl that well last year, was only getting used to Natsumi's eccentric personality now, never expected her to say something like that. However, Natsumi seemed to have noticed her own strange behavior right after she spoke those words, and put her usual face back on immediately.

"What I'm trying to say is—this world is full of mermaids, Indians, and pirates… and I don't exactly like any of them!"

"Endo…" Shishido muttered her name, frowning.

Natsumi turned to Shishido and whipped up a small smile. "Don't look at me like that, Shishido-senpai. It seems like you're a lot more troubled than I am right now."

"Eh?" Shishido widened his eyes at the girl, and immediately thought of his worries that lasted this whole week. "What are you talking about? I'm not troubled."

"Really? But you have it written all over your face!" Natsumi pointed at his face, which made Shishido tense up and look at Ohtori for confirmation. "You have the face expression of a person who had just cracked an egg into his instant ramen but a piece of the shell fell in."

"…Really, there's nothing wrong with me."

"Are you sure, Shishido-senpai? Endo-san has a point!" Ohtori said.

"I'M FINE!"

"Ah! Could it be…" Natsumi clapped her hands together in realization. "Shishido-senpai, you're worried about the match with Fudoumine next weekend?"

"Huh?" Shishido raised an eyebrow at Natsumi's question. "No, it's not that. And how do you know about that anyway?"

"Chizu told me about it when she visited me in the hospital."

Shishido looked down again at the mention of the hospital. _Maybe… she doesn't know about the kiss after all. _"No, I'm not nervous about Fudoumine. A school that's never even made it into the semi-finals isn't worth getting nervous over. I'll beat that Tachibana guy easily like all those other schools!"

Natsumi's smile dropped at this; suddenly she thought about the previous weekend when Seigaku played against Fudoumine. Fuji and Kawamura's doubles had to forfeit because of Kawamura's injury inflicted by one of Fudoumine's students. Kaidou barely won against his opponent with a 7-5 game. Echizen won his game 6-4, but also came back with a cut on his eye due to his opponent's technique. Besides all that, Fudoumine's captain never came out and played. Certainly, Shishido was a great player, but it's never good to underestimate another school.

"But being fearless and confident like this is also why Shishido-senpai's so charming…" Natsumi murmured.

"Eh?" Shishido flushed red; he'd heard what Natsumi was murmuring quite clearly, but he had to doubt himself. He really wasn't used to it—a girl being so open about her feelings. He was fortunate that Ohtori was right there beside him right now, or else he would feel even more awkward with Natsumi sitting right across from him. However, things don't always go so easily. Shishido realized that when Ohtori's cell phone started to ring.

"Ah…" Ohtori searched in his pocket for his phone, and when he found it, he got up from his seat. "Excuse me… I'll be back!"

Shishido looked in Ohtori's direction helplessly, but the younger boy was already making his way out of the café and did not see the signal. It was just the two of them now, Natsumi and Shishido. For a few minutes they did not say a thing. Natsumi sipped at her own drink, while Shishido avoided her gaze and looked outside every now and then to see if Ohtori was done talking on the phone. But it didn't seem like Ohtori was going to be done soon. Shishido shifted in his seat uncomfortably and observed Natsumi from the corner of his eyes, and when the girl noticed, she smiled at him innocently.

_Damn… what kind of man am I to be acting like this?_ Shishido fastened his hands into fists on his knees. _It's been so clear that she likes me. She doesn't even hide any of her feelings toward me, but here I am being all secretive about that kiss. What fearless? What confidence? She's being so honest already, and I'm just leaving her without an answer, leading her on! She's hardly a bad girl. And if you look past the personality, she's actually cute too! What am I doing? WHAT AM I DOING?_

"Endo!" Shishido said suddenly with raised voice.

Natsumi flinched slightly at Shishido's outburst. With widened eyes, she looked at him intently, showing that he's caught her attention.

"A—about the day at the hospital… the day that we took you there…" Shishido began to say, racking his brain to phrase his words correctly.

"Yes?" Natsumi cocked her head to the side and waited patiently.

"You probably don't know… or don't remember what happened. But even if you don't," Shishido's head shot up abruptly and he looked at her in the eyes, face red as a tomato. "I… I'll take responsibility for everything!"

"…Eh?" For the first time her life, Natsumi was thrown off by someone else's words. Before she could even decipher what Shishido had just said, her brain had already exploded into a mess. Shishido had never looked at her in the eyes before, and with such a serious face as well. Natsumi tried to keep a straight face, but her ears were already as red as the artificial cherry on her smoothie. She was lucky that she'd kept her long hair for now; it hid her embarrassment exceptionally well. "The day at the hospital… what happened…?"

Shishido bit his bottom lip to calm his racing heart. But when his eyes accidently swept over Natsumi's pink lips, his face became even redder.

"Shishido-senpai, are you okay?" Natsumi said, her voice extraordinarily flat in contrast to her mind. It surprised her as well. "Do you have a fever? Your face is so red…"

"No! I'm not sick!" Shishido said in almost a shouting tone. "It's just that… at the hospital… how do I say this? Don't take it the wrong way, I'm not blaming you for this, and it's not my fault either, but… as a man I just couldn't let it go without telling you! The truth is… Endo, at the hospital, you and I—"

_SMASH!_

Natsumi and Shishido looked down at the floor next to their table at the same time. It was a broken plate—Natsumi seemed to have knocked over an empty dish because she was getting nervous. Despite the conversation being interrupted, the two of them reached down to the floor to pick up the broken pieces of the plate. And at the same time, they both reached for the biggest piece in front of them. As if to make things worse, their hands collided into each other before they'd picked up the ceramic plate. The boy and the girl retrieved their hands instantly as if they've been shocked. They looked at each other without changing their positions, dumbfounded at what just happened.

"Natsumi-chan~~!"

A kiddy masculine voice elevated from behind Natsumi all of a sudden. Before Natsumi had the chance to turn around to see who it was, the person had already thrown himself on her back. Still in her bending-down position, the push from the back made her go forward. And her forehead, which was in line with the side of the table, crashed into the hard wood.

"Endo!" Shishido's heart almost jumped out of his ribcages at the great sound that Natsumi's head and the table made. His head snapped up at the boy who caused the whole thing and yelled menacingly, "Jirou! Look what you've done!"

Akutagawa Jirou, who was already off of the girl, took a step away in nervousness. His brows furrowed and his eyes watered. "I… I'm sorry! I just got excited because I saw Natsumi-chan and—"

"YOU SHOULDN'T HAVE JUMPED ONTO HER LIKE THAT!"

"It's all right, Shishido-senpai…" Natsumi straightened up in her chair and rubbed the spot that was hit with her fingers. Nothing much happened to her forehead; just a red spot is all. "I'm not hurt."

"Endo…"

"Natsumi-chan~" the big boy whined and looked as if he'd been caught stealing from the cookie jar. "I'm sorry, Natsumi-chan! I didn't mean to jump on you and make you hit the table! Please don't be mad at me~!"

"What's going on here?" Entering through the side door was Atobe Keigo and Kabaji followed behind. Atobe raised an eyebrow at Shishido, whose face was still red; Natsumi, who had a huge red bump on her forehead; and Jirou, who was on the verge of tears. "Jirou, I let you out of my sight for one minute, and you're already causing trouble. How immature! Ne, Kabaji?"

"Ussu!"

Natsumi stood from her seat and narrowed her eyes at Atobe. "Someone who puts other people down all the time isn't considered mature either."

"Ha?"

Atobe was certainly surprised that Natsumi would talk back to him like that, and it also surprised Shishido. The girl gave Atobe another dirty look before taking her leave, bumping into a returning Ohtori, and put the young boy in confusion. The five boys, besides Kabaji, exchanged puzzled looks at each other. Shishido looked outside the window once again to watch Natsumi walk away, and remembered about what happened before Jirou came and disturbed the two of them. He secretly sighed to himself; he didn't get to tell her what he wanted to say in the end.

Atobe observed all of this, and came to realization. "Ah, so this is why you've been distracted this whole time."

"What?" Shishido turned his attention back to his team captain, who was looking at him with an amused expression.

"Who you decide to be infatuated with is none of _my_ concern," Atobe shrugged at Shishido. "But just for your information, it seems like someone else has his eyes on that woman. I really question you guys' taste, though…"

"What are you talking about?"

"That useless manager of ours was babbling again—said something about Oishi Shuichirou going to ask her out if they win their next game!"

**

* * *

**

TBC.


	11. Step 11

A/N: As you read this chapter, please listen to "Sad Song" by Au Revoir Simone if you'd like!

**Learning to Fly**

Shishido has never felt this threatened before in his life. Not even when he was defeated by Atobe during his first year, because he didn't know his strength back then. But all in all, nobody has ever become such a problem to him. He has not lost a single match since he became a third-year regular, and he has beaten all his opponents in the district preliminaries as the only regular on the team. To put it simply, Shishido was confident in anything tennis-related. However, this time was different. When he'd heard that Oishi Shuuichirou from Seigaku was going to confess to Endo Natsumi, he felt threatened.

It wasn't exactly like he was protective of Natsumi, because they weren't a couple, so there was no reason to be. But for some reason, he thought it was inappropriate. He thought it was inappropriate that Natsumi, who has clearly expressed her affection toward him, was being pursued by some guy that he has never met. But he didn't know why he thought it was inappropriate. Maybe after all this time that he's spent with Natsumi, he felt a bit warmed up to her. Maybe he's starting to like her a little.

Or maybe, he felt even more threatened that the other party was a tennis player like him. And more accurately, the vice captain of a fairly strong team.

Shishido shook his head; the heat must be getting to him. Besides, he has beaten not only vice captains, but countless of captains during these interschool games. In fact, he's going to play against the captain of a supposedly strong team, Fudoumine, this weekend.

Captain or not, he's going to defeat every one of them.

**Step11: Pride Goes Before Fall**

It was only a couple of days ago that Oishi decided to do this. Ever since Kikumaru leaked the information that Natsumi likes him, he hasn't been able to get it off his mind. The worse thing is that when he thought about it more thoroughly, what Kikumaru said actually made sense. But that was not enough to convince Oishi. After all, Natsumi wasn't the kind of person you can easily figure out, so he needed other people's opinion.

"Oishi-senpai and Endo? Now that you've mentioned it, Endo does come to our games quite often to cheer on Oishi-senpai," said second-year tennis team regular, Momoshiro Takeshi.

"Oishi Shuuichirou and Endo Natsumi? They aren't together? But I thought they've been dating all this time!" said one classmate of Momoshiro and Natsumi.

"If they're not dating, then why does Oishi come to our classroom everyday to eat lunch with her?" said another classmate of Momoshiro and Natsumi.

"OISHI AND NATSUMI-CHAN ARE THE BEST COUPLE THERE COULD EVER BE AT SEIGAKU NYA!" said third-year tennis team regular, Kikumaru Eiji.

"I saw them strolling around in the hallway with Endo Natsumi on his back! If they're already that open, how could they not be together?" said random Seigaku student.

"Well, Oishi-kun was extremely gentle with Endo-kun when they were here together," said the infirmary nurse.

"Endo Natsumi? I've seen here a few times. She seems like a nice girl; she came to every single game that Oishi played and cheered for him," said third-year tennis team regular, Fuji Shusuke.

And so, with these testimonies, Oishi came to the conclusion that what Kikumaru said about Natsumi was true indeed. However, that created a new problem. Oishi has never dealt with a romantic relationship before. It's not like he wasn't popular among girls, but when it comes to popularity, Oishi didn't have to worry as much as Tezuka or Fuji or our young Echizen. To be honest, he wasn't ready to have an official "girlfriend" yet, mostly because he has never thought about it. But when he was reminded by Kikumaru of all the efforts that Natsumi put out to win his affections, he felt bad if he had to reject her. After all, Endo Natsumi isn't a bad girl.

"Why don't you just try going out with her?" Kikumaru asked innocently. "You never know if you really like her or not until you've gone out with her!"

Oishi, being the trusting doubles partner he is, nodded to Kikumaru's suggestion.

Seeing Oishi's reaction, Kikumaru celebrated in his heart. "Then, go ask her out today after school!"

"Ehh?" Oishi looked at Kikumaru skeptically with flushed cheeks. "I… I have to do it this soon?"

"Of course, nya! Think about how long Natsumi-chan has been waiting for you!" Kikumaru said.

Convinced by Kikumaru again, Oishi gathered up his courage to seal the deal. He was more nervous than he thought he'd be. Even though it's already confirmed that Natsumi likes him already, his heart still beat faster than it ever did. Mostly because Oishi has never, not even thought of, asking a girl out. He mumbled his rehearsed words under his breath many times on his way toward the school's backyard. His first meeting with Natsumi was right under the blooming sakura tree, which has now shed its beautiful flowers and clothed itself in green leaves for the summer. It was a good place to do it. Girls tend to like sentimental things. It was the perfect place.

"Oishi-senpai!"

Oishi's heart started racing again when Natsumi showed up from a few feet away. Under the bright summer sun, Natsumi's skin looked milkier than usual. Natsumi had tied her hair in a ponytail today due to the heat, and her big eyes were shown even more clearly now that her long hair was pulled away from them. If she'd smiled more, she would definitely be one of the cutest girls at school, Oishi thought.

"Sorry for making you wait," Natsumi said with her usual flat voice, and tugged at the strap that rested across her body. "Club activity."

Oishi waved his hand in front of him to say he hadn't been waiting long. "I heard that you joined Four-Leaf, Endo. I'm looking forward to you guys' performance at the upcoming Culture Festival." _That's right. Make small talk first._

Fortunately, Natsumi perked up at Oishi's attempt of small talk. "Oishi-senpai, you know about Four-Leaf?"

"Yeah, they were really popular when we were first-years," said Oishi and smiled, his racing heart seemed to slow down a bit as he got with the flow of the conversation. "It seems like you're having fun with them! Eiji and I always see you guys finish club activities as late as the tennis club!"

"Yes, I am lucky to be able to play with them," said Natsumi, even though her expressionless face didn't match the words coming from her mouth. And to make Oishi nervous again, Natsumi looked directly at him and brought the subject back to what it was supposed to be. "So what did you want to talk to me about?"

Oishi tensed up instantly and began to stutter, "Ah—well, I—I thought about… I thought a lot about… _you—_yes! I thought a lot about you, Endo. And I've talked with a lot of people about you, and… you know, I think you're a really nice girl—"

"Thanks, Oishi-senpai," Natsumi said, cutting him off abruptly, and did a little bowing gesture. "I'm flattered by your compliment…"

"Oh, you're welcome—wait, no, that's not it!" Oishi began to get anxious. He should've been more prepared since he knew about Natsumi's habit to interrupt people while talking. "Endo! I have something serious to ask you!"

This time, Natsumi seemed to be taken back by Oishi's burst of seriousness. She thought about it in her head, and looked down at her feet. She nodded quietly, and Oishi took that as a sign for him to continue. So he took a deep breath, and went all out.

"Please go out with me!"  
"I'm sorry!"

The two teens looked up at each other with surprise. Both doubted what they had heard from the other, but they were sure that they've heard clearly. Without thinking, Oishi blurted out the first thing that came to his mind.

"It's okay—"

"Thank you—"

Silence reigned as the exchange of words ended between Oishi and Natsumi. Although Natsumi's face still looked confused about the whole thing, Oishi's mind has totally been wiped blank. Has he just been rejected? Or was there a misunderstanding? _Now way, she said "I'm sorry" way too fast. _

"Endo…" Oishi broke the silence finally and asked weakly, "When you said 'sorry,' what did you mean?"

Natsumi, on the other hand, became more tense now that Oishi asked his question. "I thought Oishi-senpai was mad at me because the rumors about us were getting out of hand. I didn't clear it up in front of those people who spread the rumors because I didn't want them to twist my words into something weird. I'm sorry if it burdens you. I'll let them know next time that there's nothing between us."

Suddenly Oishi felt as if all of his energy was sucked out of his body, and he slumped his shoulders at Natsumi's reply. "Then… did you hear what I said to you at all?"

Natsumi's expression became questioning again. "You didn't say 'please clear it up with me?'"

Oishi shook his head exasperatedly.

"Oh," Natsumi put a hand over her mouth. "Then, what did you say?"

Oishi opened his mouth, but no words came out. The string of words that came from Natsumi killed the mood, and Oishi's guts lost all its power for this. Staring at Natsumi's expressionless face as he struggled within himself, Oishi decided against repeating his question.

"Never mind," said Oishi with a sigh. "I'll ask you again, after our game with St. Rudolph."

_After I win, I'll have more confidence in saying it again._

"And next time, please listen carefully."

* * *

Today the sky was very clear in Tokyo. There was not a single cloud and there was very little breeze. It was a perfect day to play tennis, but not so perfect for those who are just watching. Natsumi sat down on the bleachers and twitched slightly as the burning hot plastic seating scorched her legs under her shorts. She carefully set up the video camera on the tripod in front of her and placed a thick towel over the top so that the video camera doesn't overheat. After setting up all that, Natsumi sat back and relaxed as her gaze traveled toward the Hyoutei tennis team unconsciously. Almost immediately she caught sight of Shishido Ryou, who stood there ready to play as he twisted his racket around and around in his hand.

"Natsumi-chan!"

Natsumi turned to her left to see her bouncy best friend run up the bleachers toward her. Akutagawa Chizu was wearing a light blue sundress and a girly fedora. She didn't look like a manager to the tennis team at all. It was more like she was on a vacation.

"Why don't you come inside the fence?" Chizu asked, eyeing Natsumi's new video camera. "I don't think Atobe-senpai would mind. And you can see everything closer, too!"

Natsumi shook her head. "I'll stay here. I can take a better video from this angle."

"Ok, then," Chizu shrugged and plopped down next to her. "I'll sit here with you!"

Natsumi watched as Chizu took out a can of ice tea and a fan from her purse. "I see that being a manager at Hyoutei isn't much of a chore…"

"There are plenty of first-years in the club who can do my jobs for me. In fact, they'd happily take over because I can't do anything right, anyway," said Chizu nonchalantly as she opened her can. "Atobe obviously doesn't care, since he hasn't said anything. I'm only using the title of manager to stay in the club and keep an eye on Shishido-senpai for you!"

"Sometimes I wonder if that cocky captain of yours cares about anything at all," Natsumi commented dryly as her eyes followed their conversation to the ashy-haired boy who stood amongst the Hyoutei team. Around him were a group of tennis players that Natsumi had never seen before. "I see that he's not using the regulars again, even though they're playing Fudoumine…"

Chizu turned to look at Natsumi with her big, naïve eyes. "What do you mean? Fudoumine didn't even make it into the quarter-finals last year."

Natsumi didn't answer and merely watched the games in an eerie silence. To Chizu's surprise, the ominous words from Natsumi's mouth were rewritten into reality very clearly throughout every match. Hyoutei was on a losing streak, and even if they won a set, their points were always very close. Chizu shifted her eyes in between the tennis court and Natsumi nervously, but to her surprise, Natsumi didn't show any sign of nervousness. Moreover, she hasn't turned on her video camera at all.

_Oh, that's right,_ Chizu thought, _she's waiting for Shishido-senpai's set. Of course, no one is able to beat Shishido-senpai!_

And as if to answer Chizu's prediction, Natsumi turned on her camera without hesitation when Shishido's set was starting.

* * *

The match took longer than expected. Neither side was willing to step down. But in the end, there's always a side that must lose. The score was six to seven; anyone would say that it was a game well-played. Oishi has definitely lost many matches before, but he has never felt so deeply at lost all the previous times. Even after they have shaken hands with their opponent, the thought of leaving the court didn't cross his mind.

"Oishi!"

The addressee was startled when his doubles partner exclaimed loudly next to his ear. He turned around to see the redhead with an apologetic pout on his face. If there were cat ears on the boy, it would probably be drooping down right now.

"It's my fault that we lost, Oishi!" said Kikumaru, even though it pained him physically to talk. "If I had more stamina… if only I didn't get tired so easily…"

"Don't worry about it, Eiji," Oishi threw his disappointment behind his head as he comforted his best friend. "We won't lose again next time."

_Next time. I'll be able to say it next time._

Oishi repeated that thought to himself for the rest of the day, and even mumbled it when he was walking home alone. He passed by the neighborhood's park that he has passed by countless of times for the last two years and a half that he attended Seishun Gakuen. This year would be his last to play tennis with the Seigaku team. He didn't even realize that he had stopped walking as he made a silent decision in his head—today will be the last time that the Golden Pair loses.

All of a sudden, at the base of the staircase to the park, he'd thought he saw a tiny figure stumble down with a skateboard flying across the road. For some reason, he remembered that day clearly now. The short amount of time that the girl took to get up to her feet, and the strange things that she uttered through her mouth.

And those undefeated eyes that left an impression with him ever since.

* * *

"Yes, Shishido Ryou lost zero to six against Tachibana Keppei."

"The match ended in only fifteen minutes."

"Of course."

"Shishido Ryou's spot in the regulars will be removed right at this moment."

A string of words from Atobe entered Natsumi's ears as soon as it left them. She ran down the bleachers with her video camera in hand, forgetting to even turn it off. She only looked at Atobe very briefly for her running legs never slowed down. She didn't send him any hateful looks nor was there any disappointment shown on her face. She had sort of predicted this outcome, but it wasn't because she thought any less of Shishido's skills. Even if Shishido underestimated his opponent, Shishido's skill is still undeniable. He played until the end, and shone every second.

_Even if he lost, he is still…_

Natsumi stopped in front of the entrance to the tennis courts, where Shishido was about to come out from. The boy was shocked to see her standing there. Shame, regret, failure, and anger were written all over his youthful face.

It was the first time that Natsumi felt so out of breath, so lost for words.

"…Shishido-senpai…"

But before she could even form a sentence in her head, the boy stepped out of the tennis courts. He lowered his head to avoid her scorching eyes, and walked past her as quickly as possible.

Natsumi swerved around and watched him retrieve without saying a word. She didn't bother to call his name again, because she didn't know what words she should say to him. But in her heart she knew that it was probably the best if she didn't say anything at all.

The sun started to set in the far horizon. The beautiful weather was wasted by the lack of smiles today.

* * *

TBC.


	12. Step 12

**Learning to Fly**

Natsumi's eyes wandered from the window to a small, insignificant crack along one of the walls of the chemistry classroom. She wondered what kind of insects lived in that wall, and whether the sound of humans terrified them or not. As her mind led her to concentrate on that thought, her hands slowed in their movements. And soon after, Natsumi felt a lack of air in her lungs, and her voice cracked.

"Stop! Stop!"

All the music in the chemistry room stopped with Okada Takeru's command. Although, what the four youngsters were playing could not exactly be called music this time. Okada looked at Natsumi with a frown, an expression that is not shown very often on the gentle boy's face, while Kigawa and Funegoshi put down their instruments simultaneously. The two of them had already anticipated Okada to speak up. Natsumi, keeping her eyes on the small crack on the wall, put down her guitar as well.

"Endo-kun," Okada began to say softly, "is everything okay?"

Natsumi made a barely visible nod in reply. "Sorry, I messed up. I will practice more on my own."

"A couple of days ago, you could play and sing the whole song perfectly no matter how many times we rehearsed," Okada said, not ready to give up yet. "The Culture Festival is in two weeks. I'm not saying that I want you to play this song with no mistake whatsoever, but I just want you to get your energy back. Do you know what I mean?"

Natsumi looked at Okada expressionlessly, but many things tumbled through her head.

"Okay."

Okada smiled brightly in return. "Let's rest up for today, then! Remember, Endo-kun, we're all depending on you here!"

Natsumi nodded as Okada gathered up his things and left the chemistry room. Funegoshi patted Natsumi on the back, and left her a lighthearted "Take it easy, kiddo!" Natsumi nodded again and began to put her own things away as well. Kigawa, who was watching everything quietly, put down her drumsticks and walked beside the younger girl.

"Is this about a guy?" she asked abruptly.

Natsumi turned her head toward Kigawa a bit too quickly to hide her answer. Kigawa assumed that she had guessed correctly.

"I'm in the same class as Oishi," Kigawa said in explanation. "He's been looking kind of down, like you. If there's some problem between you guys, you two should talk it out. I don't want some petty fight to screw up our performance at the festival."

Natsumi raised an eyebrow at Kigawa. "I think you got something wrong here. There's nothing between me and Oishi-senpai."

"Oh?" Kigawa said. "I thought so. It doesn't seem like you two were going out like the rumors said."

"Is there something wrong with Oishi-senpai?"

Kigawa shrugged. "I heard that he lost during the last tennis match they had, but I don't think that's the reason."

"Oh," Natsumi said, flinging her guitar case on her shoulder. She gave a small wave to her bandmate before walking toward the door. But before she was going to exit the classroom, Kigawa called her name.

"Endo," she said, with a bit more emotion than how she usually talked to Natsumi. "Why don't you tell that guy to come watch you play at the festival? If you sing like you did when we first met, I think he will be impressed."

Natsumi stopped at the doorway for a moment, and then turned her head back to show a half-smile. "Thanks, Kigawa-senpai. You should play your best too, to impress Okada-senpai."

With that, Natsumi left with a swift movement, leaving Kigawa in the classroom by herself; a surprised ook on her face, and a blush as red as the sunset.

**Chapter 12: Confessions**

"Oishi-senpai, there's something I want to talk to you about."

"Wh—what is it?"

"Can we talk in private?"

Oishi hasn't been this nervous since his first year at Seigaku, when he first tried out for the tennis team. This was the first time that he has seen such a serious expression on Natsumi's face. He didn't know whether it was good thing or not. From what he knew about the girl, he only knew that she's only serious about skateboarding and playing the guitar. But when it came to people, he hasn't a clue about how she acts when she's serious.

Natsumi, with light steps, lead Oishi up to the school's rooftop. She stopped at the railing and turned around to look at Oishi with that serious face. Oishi felt his heart speed up with the rise of silence between them. The breeze in the air made enough noise to turn the atmosphere awkward. Not to mention that the wind blew Natsumi's long hair over her face, making her expression hard to read.

Taking a deep breath, Oishi decided to break the silence, "So, what do you want to talk about, Endo?"

Natsumi bit her lower lip, seeming to be forming the words in her mouth. Oishi waited patiently, even though he was dying to know what she wanted to say.

"You know…" Natsumi finally began to speak, "Losing once…doesn't mean that you're a loser…"

Oishi widened his eyes at the unexpected encouragement from Natsumi. He didn't know that she knew about their loss during the last game; he noticed that she didn't come to watch. However, even though he did lose during his last match, he didn't feel too bad about his defeat. Besides, it didn't look like Natsumi was really talking to him at all.

"Endo… Sorry for worrying you, but Eiji and I already promised each other that we'll never lose again."

This time, Natsumi raised her head in confusion. "Then, why did I hear that Oishi-senpai was feeling down?"

"I…" Oishi's cheeks flushed red when he thought of his answer. He was sad because he missed his chance to confess to Natsumi. It was just a stupid bet that he made with himself, but it felt like something necessary. "I… I just lacked the confidence to…"

Natsumi opened her mouth and struck her fist into an open palm with a face of realization. "Ah… so it's that!"

"Eh?"

"Do not worry, Oishi-senpai," Natsumi said, this time with a friendly smile on her face. "She won't think any less of you just because you lost a match. Love is not about impressing people. I'm sure that her eyes have never left the sight of you even when you were losing…"

"What? Wait," Oishi said hurriedly. "Endo, I think you misunderstood!"

"No," Natsumi said as she turned around slowly, "I know that because I feel exactly the same way."

Realizing that Natsumi was about to leave, Oishi suddenly felt that his confession couldn't wait any longer. It was urgent. He felt as if he didn't say it now, he would never be able to say it.

"En—Natsumi!"

Natsumi turned back to him with a bleak expression.

"Yes?"

"I like you, Natsumi!" the taste of those words coming out of his mouth felt unfamiliar to his tongue, but he liked it. The words came out easier than he'd expected. He took a step forward, and he knew that he couldn't stop himself anymore. "Will you go out with me?"

Natsumi's eyes widened for an instant; Oishi could see all kinds of emotions flash by between her lids. His heart beat even faster when he said his confession, and his breathing became messy. It was almost like a tennis match; you keep struggling even if you're out of breath, out of energy. Oishi didn't give up, but he already knew the answer that he was going to hear.

"Thank you, Oishi-senpai," Natsumi started slowly. "I'm flattered that someone as great as you could have taken interest in someone like me. I don't deserve this at all."

"Na… Endo…" Oishi swallowed hard. He didn't realize that his throat was so dry.

"You deserve someone better than me, Oishi-senpai," she continued to say with a small smile. "After all, I'm a girl who has already filled her heart with so much of another boy. There's no space for anyone else, not even for myself."

Natsumi turned around again, and left the elder boy behind; her footsteps quick and light. Oishi watched her until she disappeared under the stairs. Surprisingly, he didn't feel sad like he thought he would. He didn't feel angry about her lame excuse. His mind was calm about what happened, but he felt something even worse than what he thought he should have felt. He stood there to contain it slowly—the feeling of rocks being thrown at his chest. He took a long, shaky breath, and closed his eyes.

_The sun was stingingly bright today._

* * *

_"Come to the tennis court at the park on Chushaku Street—Ohtori Choutarou."_

Natsumi stared at the screen on her mobile phone as she made her way toward the destination. She had no idea how the boy obtained her number, although it was probably Chizu's doing. It was very strange; Natsumi started moving before her mind even decided whether to go or not. At the moment she was sure that she didn't want to watch anyone play tennis at all. But something compelled her to go meet Ohtori at the public tennis court. She wondered what he could possibly want to meet her for. She remembered the boy to be nice and polite, and a good friend of Shishido's. And then, it suddenly hit her that this meeting has to be about Shishido. She became a bit anxious; what if Ohtori wanted to tell her that Shishido quit the tennis club? Or that Shishido hasn't touched tennis ever since the day that he was beaten, because of how badly he lost?

Natsumi swallowed hard and quickened her pace toward the park. Chushaku was past her house and a little bit further toward Hyoutei's direction. Natsumi was not familiar with the roads here, and she certainly has not ever been to the park on Chushaku Street. When she arrived there, she frowned upon the size of the park; the tennis court was nowhere in sight. She quickly entered the park and started off on her right, looking for Ohtori's tall figure and his head of white.

Not too long after, she heard the popping sound of a racket hitting the tennis ball. She followed the sound and soon spotted the tennis court that Ohtori was talking about. But no one was there. Instead, she looked over to her side and saw someone at the practicing walls. The sun invaded her eyes and she narrowed them to see the person clearly. It was a boy with short brown hair, which was slightly hidden under a sky blue cap. Even if he was facing away from Natsumi, she could immediately tell who the boy was. By the way he hit the ball and his perfect foot work.

"Shishido-senpai!"

The boy stopped hitting suddenly and caught the ball in his hand. He turned around with a surprised expression when he saw Natsumi standing there. Once he registered who had just called his name, he felt a tinge of nervousness.

"Endou?" he said, bewildered to see Natsumi at a place like this. "What are you doing here?"

Natsumi invited herself over to where Shishido was standing. She immediately understood that it was Chizu who set her and Shishido up with the help of Ohtori, but she was pleased this time. With the long hair gone, Shishido not only didn't lose his charm, but he looked refreshing and anew. Just now, he was practicing so diligently that it seemed he has gotten back on his feet from his previous loss. Sweat drenched his reddened face and shirt; he breathed hard to catch his breath. Natsumi blushed a little at how great Shishido looked, and couldn't help from feeling glad, and even proud, about him.

"It's great that you're still playing tennis really hard, Shishido-senpai!" she said with genuine happiness.

Shishido took a second to reply to Natsumi. It seems that he's still a bit shocked to see Natsumi. "Yes, of course! It is my fault that I lost to Tachibana; I underestimated him."

"I thought that… maybe you were going to be discouraged because Atobe kicked you out of the regulars."

"Well, I was a bit bitter about it," Shishido said, scratching the back of his head with embarrassment. "But I can't do anything against him. He's the captain. I hate to say it, but I can't beat him with my power right now. All I can do is practice and get my spot in the regulars back, and one day I'll be able to beat Atobe too."

Natsumi looked at him with teary eyes and tightened fists. "Shishido-senpai… you are great! You are too great! Your hard work makes even me feel all pumped up!"

"Is… is that so?"

"Yes!" Natsumi grabbed Shishido's left hand suddenly. The unexpected touch and the coolness of Natsumi's skin sent a jolt up Shishido's spine. "Come with me!"

Regardless of Shishido's confused face, Natsumi pulled Shishido away from the court and back the way that she came from. Giving in to Natsumi's usual sudden actions, Shishido simply let Natsumi pull him wherever she wanted to go. Shishido couldn't help but notice that, differing from the time that Natsumi attended Hyoutei, she has put on more weight by the looks of her legs and arms. Before, she used to have really skinny limbs that seemed so easily breakable. She became plumper; her skin became tanner. He even felt the calluses on her fingertips.

It seemed like the girl has gone through so much change that he barely remembers what she was like when he first met her. She was quirky, but has her girly side. She spat out nonsense most of the time, but some of the things she says definitely surprises him. And definitely, they make him feel several unfamiliar emotions. Unconsciously, he was already smiling at the small back of the strange girl that he knew so little about.

"Here we are!"

Shishido snapped back into reality at Natsumi's excited voice. He looked ahead of him and saw a street side ice cream vendor in front of him. The old man greeted them enthusiastically behind the freezer. Natsumi swerved her head back at him with her big round eyes.

"Vanilla or Chocholate?"

Looking at Natsumi's expectant eyes, Shishido couldn't bring himself to tell her that he didn't like sweets. "Va—vanilla."

"Good choice!" Natsumi said before turning back to the old man. "Two vanilla ice cream cones!"

"That will be 400 yen all together!"

Natsumi fished out some change from her pocket, but Shishido immediately stepped up and stopped her. No matter what their relationship was, it didn't feel right for the girl to pay for ice cream, no matter how expensive it was.

"Wait! I should pay for it!"

"Shishido-senpai, please let me pay for it!" Natsumi insisted. "I'm the one that forcefully brought you here. And this is something I must do. Money isn't something that can get between us!"

Shishido was left speechless, while the old vendor laughed with interest.

"Hey, young man! You've got a cute girlfriend here! If she insists to pay, then you gotta let her pay!"

Shishido blushed slightly and glared at the old man for being nosy. "She—she's not my girlfriend!"

"Hey, don't be embarrassed! You should be proud of your—"

"He's right! I'm not his girlfriend!" Natsumi said. "Although I am more than pleased that you thought that way."

Both the old man and Shishido blinked at Natsumi's forwardness. Then, the old man made a "tsk, tsk" noise behind his teeth and handed the ice cream cones to the two of them. He nudged Shishido a little when he handed him the ice cream. "She's a rare one. Catch her before someone else does!"

"Ossan, I'm not some kind of animal, you know?" Natsumi complain, although she had a smile on her face.

Natsumi grabbed Shishido's hand again and dragged him over to one of the benches under the trees. The old man chuckled as he saw Shishido almost tripping over his own foot. Ah, it's good to be young, he thought. Of course, he did not miss the way that Shishido looked at the girl's hand as she grabbed him. The boy probably doesn't even know that he's already helpless. No matter how much the both of them deny it, that girl was going to have her way sooner or later.

* * *

"Ice cream is the food to eat when you need to be cheered up. At least it seems that way in all the American films I've watched…"

Shishido and Natsumi sat side by side on the bench. It amused him to watch Natsumi turn her cone round and round, licking from the sides that were starting to melt. He felt a bit self-conscious; even though he didn't like sweets, he finished off his ice cream in only a couple of minutes. It might be the hot weather. Or it might be that the ice cream tasted better when he's eating it with Natsumi, while listening to her ramble on about uncorrelated things.

"Shishido-senpai, did you like your ice cream?"

"Well… yes…"

"That's great," Natsumi said with a sigh. "This whole time, I didn't know what to say to Shishido-senpai at all. I mean, how to cheer you up. On that day, I felt scared for the first time because I let you walk past me without saying anything. I thought I was able to come up with _something _to make you feel less down, but I couldn't. But today, I was so relieved that you were playing tennis harder than ever." She looked up at the sky, and her eyes followed the slowly moving clouds. "But then, I felt a little unhappy that I wasn't able to be the one that cheered you up. I wanted to be Shishido-senpai's support. But since it's too late, I thought I should at least do something to make up for what I couldn't do."

"You didn't have to!" Shishido said quickly. "It was my fault that I lost. You don't have to feel obligated to come all the way here to cheer me up!"

Natsumi turned her head toward him. The smile that was previously on her face disappeared. "Am I a burden to you, Shishido-senpai?"

"Eh?"

"I know I selfishly said that I will keep liking you even if you don't like me, but now I understand that normal people would feel upset if someone is that persistent," she said. "It's like insisting penguins are bird species, but they can't fly. The penguins would feel hurt if people kept emphasizing that they can't fly, and not praising them for being able to dance."

"…Wait… dance?"

"Happy Feet. Have you not seen it?"

"No…"

"It's a great movie. Anyway, as I was saying, if you ever feel burdened, I'll try to keep my feelings to myself. Although, it's going to be hard, because I have a hard time letting go of things I love. No matter if it's a thing or a place or a person…" she looked at Shishido in the eyes. "It's just like how you feel about tennis, Shishido-senpai!"

Shishido felt something tug at his chest. It didn't feel comfortable at all. He wasn't used to the kind of attention that Natsumi gave him, but he never thought it was a burden. He never thought that anybody would worry so much over his feelings. It was his own fault that he'd lost to Tachibana, and he was too ashamed to look at her in the face at that time. But she never thought any less of him. Instead, she beat herself up for not being able to cheer him up.

To think that she was going to distance herself from him, he felt uneasy. He liked the feeling of having someone constantly thinking about him.

Perhaps, he never realized it before, but he'd already began to think about her differently too.

"Endou, it's not like that!" He said, putting his hands on her shoulders all of a sudden. The unexpected action shook her; her hand twitched and her ice cream dropped onto the floor.

"Ah…"

The two of them looked down at the ice cream at the same time, and looked back up at each other. Shishido, red in the face, frantically gathered his words in his head.

"Shishido-senpai…"

"I… I won't lose again!" he shouted.

"Eh?" Natsumi shoulders twitched this time, and Shishido instinctively pressed his hands against them tightly.

"I won't lose again… so you won't have to worry about cheering me up. But… still… I like that you care about me even though I never returned your feelings…"

Natsumi, for the first time in her life, felt nervous while talking to someone. For the first time, she felt like her heat was going break through her ribcage from beating so hard.

"You're not a burden to me, so…"

"…."

"Please be with me!"

* * *

TBC

* * *

A/N: Hi guys! Sorry for the looooong hiatus! I have been super busy with school and work that I couldn't even start thinking about updating. Hopefully it's not too bad, but this chapter is mostly conversation. I will try my hardest to complete this story as fast as I could! Thank you all for reading!


	13. Step 13

**Learning to Fly**

Natsumi was speechless, flabbergasted. It was becoming a frequent phenomenon with her when it comes to Shishido Ryou. She used to be able to say whatever first came to her mind when she was pursuing him. But now that Shishido has just said something like that to her, her brain froze. She didn't think that it would actually happen. She was never really successful with anything. She was too shocked to even feel happy. On the other hand, Shishido was the one who kept a clear mind this whole time, despite how nervous he was. He waved his hand in front of her several times and called her name, but she just blinked in response. After another few tries, Shishido gave up and sighed.

"What's wrong with her…?" he mumbled. He shifted his position on the bench so that he could face her better.

"Endou! Can you hear me? It's getting late and I need to get home…"

"Ah!" Finally, Natsumi snapped back to reality. "Um… Shishido-senpai… so… what you said before… can I take it as a confession?"

"Ah… well…" Shishido said and scratched his head shyly. "It's actually hard for me to say, but I'm not quite sure either. I mean, I'm really happy that you'd come to watch me play tennis and care so much about me. But it doesn't seem fair that I know almost nothing about you. I spend so much time on tennis that I don't notice a lot of things. If you don't mind… I want to know more about you first, Endou."

Natsumi's face turned as red as the sunset. For a second, Shishido thought the girl was going to cry from how moist her eyes looked. But instead, she smiled the biggest smile he had ever seen on her face.

"That's more than enough for me, Shishido-senpai!"

**Step13: Stand Up**

"Natsumi-sama, where have you been the whole day?"

Sasaki-san rushed to the front door when he heard it open. What greeted him was a dazed Natsumi hobbling through the doorway. Although his young master usually looked this way, she seemed even more distracted this time. However, tonight, there was something more important to worry about.

"Please hurry in, Natsumi-sama," Sasaki-san said with haste. "Your aunt is here to see you. And she said it's something urgent!"

Natsumi immediately responded when she heard the word "aunt."

"Aunt Ageha is here?"

"Yes, and she has been waiting for hours!"

"I will go see her right away."

Natsumi entered the main hall and into the reception room. Her aunt, in another designer suit, sat in her father's leather armchair comfortably, with a bored expression. When she saw Natsumi come in, she stood up and approached her.

"I've been waiting for you, Natsumi-chan," Aunt Ageha took her by the elbow and led her to a tall table. She pulled out a few papers from her bag. "I need you to sign these quickly."

Natsumi eyed the papers distrustfully. "What are these?"

"Authorization of dismissal of your father's company," Aunt Ageha said honestly. "I could've done this myself, but I didn't know that your father put your name down as the future successor of the company. I can't sell the company without your signatures."

"You're trying to sell my father's company?" Natsumi widened her eyes.

"Yes, managing your father's company while managing my own is too much on my hands."

"My father asked you to take care of his company when he died, not sell it!"

"Yes, but the business is already failing!" Aunt Ageha waved her hand with annoyance. "You should know that everyone buys music digitally nowadays. Your father's company is not gonna last."

"It's failing because of poor management! The record industry can still go on!"

"Stop talking like you know anything, Natsumi-chan!" Aunt Ageha said with an angry smile on her face. "You should be thankful already that I'm spending so much money to keep you in this house with all your servants. I'm not obligated to take care of you, you know? I'm not your parents! What do you know about business, Natsumi-chan? A sheltered girl like you, who can't even get good grades at school, is trying to say that I can't run a company? You refuse to hand over the company? Very well, how about I give everything back to you and take back what I've paid for?"

Natsumi watched in horror as Aunt Ageha called over all of her servants into the reception room. She pulled out more papers from her bag that described her father's assets. Everything was happening too fast. She knew what was going to happen, but she didn't know what to do. After all, she was only a fourteen-year-old child.

"All of you are fired. I'll give you until the end of tomorrow to gather all of your things and leave. Your compensations end tonight." Aunt Ageha announced to the servants and bodyguards.

Sasaki-san stood out from the gasping crowd. "Ma'am, what are you talking about? Natsumi-sama can't possibly take care of herself!"

"Oh, but she thinks she can," said Aunt Ageha. "You may stay in this house if you like, since this is not my property, but you will no longer be paid for what you're doing. The company will soon fall into bankruptcy, anyway."

Sasaki-san turned to Natsumi with a frown. "Natsumi-sama, what is going on?"

Natsumi looked down with a dark shadow over her eyes. She bit her lips in aggravation. Her irresponsible action had just taken away Sasaki-san and the others' jobs. She wanted to shout at her aunt, "all right! Hand me the company!" but she knew she was too young to do it. She didn't know what to do; all she wanted to do was run away.

She had said so herself that she'd never wanted to be Endo Natsumi. She had always resented this second chance. Whatever happens to Endo Natsumi's father's company shouldn't be any of her concern. But she felt it was unfair for Aunt Ageha to do that. Her father had wanted his daughter to run the company some day. It was his wish. And Endo Natsumi couldn't even fulfill it for him, whether or not she wanted it. Even if they've all passed away, she couldn't imagine the kind of disappointment that the whole family would have.

Aunt Ageha, seeing that Natsumi had nothing to say, smirked patronizingly and walked out of the house. Once the door was closed, all the servants and bodyguards crowded around Natsumi.

"What did you say to her, Natsumi-sama?"

"You should've listened to her, Natsumi-sama! Your father would give _anything _for your happiness!"

"Natsumi-sama—"

"That's enough!" Natsumi said, her body shaking from anger. "I couldn't just bow down to her. I hate having responsibilities, I hate adults, and I hate the adult world, but… I hate it even more when she looked at me like I can't do anything for myself! Just because I'm a child doesn't mean that I can't make decisions on my own! Adults are the ones that are afraid! They're afraid to take their eyes off money, and they won't spare a glance at what they love! If that's what I have to become, then I should've died in that car crash!"

_PAAN!_

Everyone gasped at the scene in front of them. The usual cool-headed Sasaki-san had just slapped his young master. Natsumi widened her eyes at the elder man. She tried looking at his eyes, but they hidden behind his sunglasses. But even without looking at his face, she could tell that he was mad.

"Don't say something like that," Sasaki-san said sternly. "Life is not something that you should 'give up.' Go to your room and think about what you've just said."

Natsumi bit her bottom lip and stomped upstairs into her room.

* * *

Without coming down the stairs again for dinner, Natsumi stayed quietly in her room until she fell asleep. She woke up rather early the next morning, finding herself on the floor instead of her bed. She briefly forgot about the incident last night and went groggily down the stairs, expecting to see everyone at their normal places. However, she found no one. None of her bodyguards were around and her servants were not preparing breakfast for her. And then she remembered that her aunt had chased all of her workers out of the house.

Natsumi stood at the bottom of the stairs for a while, went back upstairs, got dressed, and left the house.

* * *

Even though it was early Sunday morning, the subway was still very packed. Natsumi let out a breath of relief when she got off the train at the Tokyo main station. Making her way up to the JR level, she easily spotted the boy she wanted to see since there were much less people taking the Shinkansen. He stood under a signpost casually, glancing at his watch from time to time.

"Shishido-senpai!"

The boy looked over at Natsumi and waved. She quickly ran up to him and apologized for being late. "Were you waiting for a long time?"

"No, I just got here," said Shishido.

"Sorry for calling you out on a Sunday so suddenly, and dragging you with me to Fukuoka," Natsumi lowered her head. "I just thought that… I couldn't go alone…"

"It's fine!" Shishido said, noticing something strange about Natsumi. Even though she usually didn't carry a lot of emotion on her face, she looked more troubled today than normal. "Why do you want to go to Fukuoka all of a sudden?"

"There's someone I'd like to visit…"

The train arrived at the station not too long after, and the two boarded the train in silence. The silence continued throughout the whole train ride. Shishido knew better than to ask Natsumi about what has happened, because he knew that she won't give him a straightforward answer. Instead, he watched the side of her face as she looked out the window. He could tell that she was in deep thought. This continued on for another five hours, and they finally arrived at their destination.

Shishido followed Natsumi all the way after getting off the train. Natsumi seemed to know the city very well. Not only that, she seemed to be in a better mood than before, as she was pointing out some famous places for him when they passed by. According to Natsumi, she had grown up in Fukuoka and only came to Tokyo in junior high school. He didn't know that at all, even when she went to Hyoutei the first year.

They took a bus to the more rural part of Fukuoka, and they walked the rest of the way. After another hour of traveling, the two of them arrived at a flower shop with a large garden. Even though it was a very ordinary flower shop, the building was made with pinkish orange bricks and a dark red roof. Hanging outside the front door was a wind chime, which looked like it was painted by a child. Underneath that, the name plate that read "Aogi" also seemed hand-carved. It seemed more like a home than a shop. Shishido was amazed by the peacefulness in the atmosphere; Natsumi didn't seem like a person who would visit this kind of place.

"What's wrong, Endo?" Shishido asked as Natsumi stopped at the front door of the shop.

The girl did not answer him. She had an intense look in her eyes. And then, he noticed that her hands were shaking very slightly.

Suddenly, the two of them were startled by the door, opened from inside.

"Good afternoon, children," an elder lady came out from behind the door. She smiled a very kind smile at them. "Don't just stand outside; come in! It's so rare for young people to visit a shop like this!"

Shishido looked at Natsumi from the corner of his eyes and saw her something faltering in her big brown eyes. They bowed at the elder lady, who introduced herself as Itou Haruka, and entered the shop. Although Shishido wasn't really interested in flowers, he was impressed at the variety of them in the shop. He knew that flowers bloomed in different seasons, but there were so many varieties. You could tell that the owner of this flower shop knew a lot about flowers and was skilled at breeding them.

"I am Aogi, the owner of this shop," the elder lady said, her voice soft and gentle. "Are you here to buy flowers for your girlfriend?"

"Ah! No! No, I'm not…" Shishido shook his head furiously and looked beside him out of instinct, but Natsumi wasn't there anymore. Suddenly he felt a little worried, even though she couldn't be far. He looked around frantically.

Mrs. Aogi widened her smile as she watched the boy's expression. She pointed toward the yard on the outside. "Your friend ran off to the sunflower garden. I'm surprised that she knew we had one… Follow me."

Shishido followed Mrs. Aogi through a short hallway and through the sliding glass door. Behind the door was an amazing garden of full-bloom sunflowers. All that Shishido saw was the bright yellow of sunflower petals complimented with green and brown. And then, just ahead of him was a small wooden chair on the soft grass. Natsumi sat in the chair. Her brown hair cascaded down her back and blended in with the rest of the garden so well that he'd thought she'd been here for all of her life. However, with the girl's back to him, he couldn't guess what kind of expression was on Natsumi's face. The silence worried him, though.

"Ara…" Mrs. Aogi let out a short gasp, barely audible. Shishido noticed Mrs. Aogi putting her hand over her mouth from the corner of his eyes, and when he turned to look at her, he was surprised to see that a thin stream of tear was running down her cheek.

"Aogi-san, are you all right?" he asked.

"I'm fine… it's just that…" Mrs. Aogi wiped her face quickly and smiled apologetically. "My daughter… she used to sit there on that chair all day, well, whenever she was home. Her father and I always wondered what she could be thinking about, but we never asked. All we knew was that she loved sunflowers and that she needed her alone time… Ah, it's been a while since anybody sat in that chair. And your friend's posture was so similar to Narumi's that I thought I was hallucinating…"

"Narumi?"

"Aogi Narumi, my daughter. Come to think of it, she should be you guys' age if she was still around…"

At this point, Natsumi finally turned around to face them. Her face was unusually serious. "Your daughter Narumi… she's…"

"…." Mrs. Aogi looked down at her feet with a sad smile, and replied tiredly, "She… passed away in a car accident a while ago… although it feels like just yesterday that she was sitting here, looking at the flowers…"

"Aogi-san…" Shishido frowned; he couldn't imagine that such a tragedy happened to her, and yet she was able to greet them with so much gentleness.

"Aogi-san, the truth is…" Natsumi stood up from the chair and walked in front of the woman. "I am Endou Natsumi, the girl who was in the limousine when the car crash happened. I was the one that survived."

Both Mrs. Aogi and Shishido widened their eyes at Natsumi's confession. Especially Shishido, who never knew something like this happened. The accident that everyone talked about only included information about Endou's family; the name Aogi Narumi was not even mentioned in the news.

"To be honest, I am quite ashamed. Even though I was the only one that survived from that incident, even though I became better after only a couple of months, and even though I had a lot people to take care of me, I never came here to apologize to you and your husband until now. The Endou family should've taken responsibility for everything. But I didn't think of it as my problem at all. I thought that it had nothing to do with me, and I that I was the only victim. Not until now did I realize… that my parents are no longer with me… and I'm the one that should be responsible…" Natsumi went on with a shaky voice. Her eyes looked left and right as if she could not feel comfortable no matter where she looked. As if to suppress something, she bit her lips hard. "And even though I'm here, saying all these… I still don't have the power to take responsibility at all!"

Shishido watched speechlessly as Natsumi let out all that was on her mind. He'd never seen this amount of regret in someone's eyes. He'd never expect to see it in Natsumi's eyes either. And then he realized that the feeling was familiar to him; it was the same kind of regret that he felt when he lost to Tachibana. The feeling of powerlessness, and yet you wish that you had prepared yourself better.

Mrs. Aogi did not respond for a long time. But when she did, she came closer to Natsumi and leant down to look at the young girl more carefully. "Natsumi… was it?"

Natsumi attempted to look at Mrs. Aogi, but she retrieved her gaze as soon as she moved it.

"Natsumi-chan, you don't have to feel so guilty about all this. After all, it was an accident, and you are merely a child," Mrs. Aogi said, so softly that it sounded like whispering. She patted Natsumi's hair like a loving mother, but it only made Natsumi tremble more. "And there was nothing any of us could have done. Natsumi-chan must also be hurting too, having lost your parents in an instant. It must've been hard coping with the loss…"

Natsumi lowered her head even more as she shook her head. "I had never thought about it… I thought that I had nothing to lose…"

"It's just hard to believe, that's all. Narumi wasn't our real daughter, you know, my husband and I adopted her. You would think that we weren't attached to her since she's not our real daughter, but we really saw her as our own. She was so different from other children. She had her own thoughts, her own dreams, and she would try anything new. She was the bravest kid. We loved her so much… she brought light into this household…"

"Narumi… she must have loved you just as much…" Natsumi sobbed. "If she had survived… she would've ran home as fast as she could…"

"Thank you, Natsumi-chan. For you to have thought of all of this, and have the courage to come here, you're already a very mature girl." Mrs. Aogi smiled kindly. "Your parents would be so proud of you. I have hoped that Narumi would grow up into a nice girl like you!"

For the first time, Shishido saw real tears fall down from Natsumi's eyes. Each teardrop carved a spot in his heart. Not even her tears when Atobe rejected her were as scorching as these. As he watched her small shoulders tremble under her thick locks of hair, shaking like a leaf, he saw that she had been alone all this time. From the time that she attended Hyoutei to this very moment, she had been pushing herself forward. Even when she had no one's support, she moved forward. Even when he had repeatedly avoided her feelings, she moved forward.

Then he realized that what he was feeling was probably love. The wish to hold her hands and move forward with her. And at her weakest moment, he will not let go and not take his eyes away from her, because that's also the moment that she's shining the brightest. Just like how she had always kept her gaze on him.

* * *

TBC.


	14. Step 14

**A/N: **The song which Natsumi sings in this chapter is "My Generation" by YUI. You may listen to it while reading.

**Learning to Fly**

"I'm sorry to that you had to see all that, Shishido-senpai…"

The ride back from Fukuoka was just as quiet as before, except Shishido was more uneasy this time. After the whole episode at the Aogi's, Shishido didn't have a clue about what to say to Natsumi. At first, he'd let her cry silently, and he'd let her walk in front of him, knowing that she wanted to be left alone. She had finished crying by the time that they arrived at the JR, and that was when the awkwardness started. He didn't dare look at her straight on, but she had her head down anyway. And when she finally broke the silence, his heart jumped in nervousness.

"It's okay, Endou," he said, trying to be supportive. "I've never considered that you were facing such a harsh time…"

The girl let out a sigh. "No, I've never tried to face it until now. I was so absorbed with myself that I forgot everything. And when the problems show up, I ran away immediately. I guess I was scared. I probably wouldn't have been able to do this if you didn't come with me. Thank you."

Shishido blushed at how sincere Natsumi was being. He didn't think that he did anything worth being thanked for. He flipped his brain inside and out for something to say, but he really wasn't good at cheering people up.

"Shishido-senpai… let's not see each other for a while…"

"Eh?"

Shishido swerved his head toward Natsumi at her sudden proposal, finding the girl to be looking straight at him.

"It's selfish of me, but I want to try to live as both Narumi and Natsumi," she said. Her dull brown eyes seemed brighter than before under the setting sun. "I would have to take on more responsibility, and it's even harder now that I have to do it on my own, but I'm going to try. So I cannot have any distraction right now. And when I succeed, everything will be right again and I will be a different me. Maybe when you meet the new me next time, you might be more attracted to me."

Natsumi gave him a playful smile. Shishido couldn't help but return the smile; it seemed like his feelings lately have coordinated themselves according to Natsumi's. He knows how stubborn she is, and she will keep to her words until she either succeeds or fails.

"I will do my best on my side too. I will be back in the regulars when we meet again."

**Step 14: Spread Your Wings**

The sun has completely set when Natsumi and Shishido finally arrived in Tokyo. The two of them exchanged quiet good-byes and went their separate ways.

Because the Endou estate was too big for the suburbs near the train station, Natsumi has to walk quite a distance to get home. However, Natsumi appreciated this chance to enjoy the night wind. Ever since she came to Tokyo, she hasn't been outside of her home much at night. Back when she lived in Fukuoka, she never went home until very late or early morning. To be honest, Natsumi can't get used to life in Tokyo. The busy streets, the busy people, the bright city lights, she can't keep up with it. She often felt suffocated by the way things happen constantly. But surprisingly, the night was more comforting than she'd imagined. Although there were many people on the street, everyone was minding their own business. No one paid attention to her, no one knew about her, no one was there to tell her to get on top of things.

"Ah… you can't see a single star at all…." Natsumi murmured as she tilted her head back to stare at the sky. Back in her hometown, she would be able to see stars every day. The sky in this city was dark, cloudless, and empty. For some reason, she felt relieved. The city felt more spacious than she ever thought.

"It must be endless…"

When Natsumi neared the Endou estate, she was surprised to see the house illuminated. There were people in the house; she could hear a lot of voices. She became nervous. Who's there? Aren't the servants all gone? Not knowing what to do, the girl lingered a few feet away from the gates. She looked at the wall, and considered jumping over it and climbing the tree to get into her room.

"AH! Sasaki-san, I found her!"

Natsumi jumped when a high-pitched voice thundered behind her and a pair of hands grabbing her shoulders a second after. She looked back to see the head chef, Mrs. Kaori. And when she looked around, a mass of her bodyguards and servants emerged after hearing Mrs. Kaori's voice. One of which, coming from straight ahead of her, was Sasaki-san.

"Natsumi-sama! Where were you for the whole day? Do you know how long we've been looking for you?" Sasaki-san shouted as he came toward her. He took her by the hand and pulled her toward the house. Sasaki-san has always been the strongest man amongst all of her servants, but the hand that he held her with was shaking so much that it threw her off.

"What do you mean where was I?" Natsumi mumbled, thinking that her skill of retorting has softened lately. "You guys are the ones that disappeared first…"

After a short pause, Sasaki-san replied, "We didn't think that you would wake up that early, Natsumi-sama. Everyone went out to look for part-time jobs."

"Part-time jobs?"

"Since Natsumi-sama will be in school for most of the day, everyone agreed to find day jobs that will help keeping the house for all of us and Natsumi-sama." Sasaki-san explained, his voice calmed down greatly and was now the same as before. "We weren't going to abandon the Endou family just because we lost our jobs. Natsumi-sama, we want to stay here because we enjoy serving you, not just because we owe your father so much. There's nowhere else we would rather work for than here; we've considered this place our home."

Natsumi could not respond to all that Sasaki-san was saying. Feeling his grip becoming firmer, she saw him as a strong adult for the first time.

"Besides, there's someone here even more eager to see you," Sasaki-san twisted his head back at his young master. A rare smile hung on Sasaki-san's face, which made Natsumi feel unusually warm on the inside.

Entering through the gates and crossing the front yard, surrounding Natsumi was all of the familiar faces of her servants with relieved smiles. Sasaki-san led her through the door, into the living room and urged her inside. Natsumi steadied her feet as she recognized the man who waited for her in the living room. He stood as tall as usual, as healthy as ever under the luminescent light. The wrinkles on his face seemed to have increased in numbers, but they made him look kind as his smile curled them upwards. Natsumi felt something warm behind her eyes; she bit her lips to keep it hidden back there.

"Welcome home, Natsumi-sama," said Isono-san gently, walking toward the young girl. "I've heard about what happened. As I expected from my young master, you stand up for what's important to you. You remind me of your father; he would be so proud of you."

As if she bit into a lemon, all the sourness poured out from Natsumi's eyes in tears. Her teeth loosened from her lips and she let out audible sobs. It was probably the loudest that she'd ever cried. She felt somebody's hand on her head, ruffling her hair lovingly. Although she couldn't see through her hands, she knew it was Isono-san. She didn't know why she knew, but it felt like a pair of hands that has always helped her up.

"Isono-san…" she said shakily. "You are the man whom father trusted the most. The Endou family has been under your care for more than 30 years…"

Natsumi has always known—that growing up doesn't simply happen through time; it was something that you have to choose.

"From now on, will you lead the Endou Corporations until I become capable of taking this business into my own hands?" Natsumi said, so loudly that it was almost like shouting. "I entrust all of the assets under Endou's name to you. And Sasaki-san, will you take over everything in this house?"

Sasaki-san and Isono-san exchanged a look; both smiled at their young master.

"This is the first time I've seen you lower your head, Natsumi-sama. How you have grown…"

* * *

It is not so hard to put down your pride once you have done it once before. On this day, Natsumi stepped into the grounds of Hyoutei Gakuen willingly. Jirou and Ohtori were pleasantly surprised, and Chizu was especially worked up, having heard about what happened. But what shocked everyone even more was that Natsumi didn't come to see Shishido; she came to see Atobe.

"So you're the one that Atobe was expecting?" Oshitari remarked, remembering Atobe picking up a phone call and saying that he will be attending to some business during practice. "That's rare for him to take time out of practice. He's waiting for you at the club's storeroom."

Natsumi nodded as a thank-you, and went her way. Oshitari raised an eyebrow at the way she acted. She has never been very approachable, but she definitely became more aware of other people around her now. He looked toward Shishido, who was rallying with Hiyoshi on a nearby court, who didn't look over this way at all.

Something has changed between these people. The corner of Oshitari's mouth curled up in a discreet smile. Things were becoming interesting.

"Atobe!"

Natsumi called out to the boy who sat on the big armchair with his back facing her. It took her a little time to take in the all of the luxury in the so-called 'storeroom'. It had an air conditioner and TV and everything; Atobe Keigo will always have his way with things, she has learned that.

"Is that how you address someone you're asking a favor from?" Atobe turned around slowly in his chair, looking at her with a sly smile. "Especially a favor as big as this."

Natsumi's eyes widened just slightly. "You already know what happened?"

"Of course. Business relations is always the conversation topic at our dinner table," said Atobe with a slightly mocking tone. "Your aunt—what was her name?—came to us before she went to you, asking us to buy your father's company. My father showed some interest, but neither of them knew that the company was under your name. And after you refused to sign the dismissal form, words spread and eventually I heard about it."

"So that's the world I'm getting myself into…" Natsumi murmured, and looked up at Atobe seriously. "Since you already know what happened, then you must know what I'm going to ask you."

"I may have a clue, but why don't you ask me like how normal people ask for help?"

Atobe was, in fact, happy that Natsumi was here to ask him a favor. He has many people under his feet; everyone knows what kind of power he holds, but the girl in front of him has never asked him of anything. He has known the girl ever since they were children, and even though she was a weak crybaby, she never asked him for help. Just because she liked him, she did anything and everything he told her to do. She became a slave for the tennis club, but she did everything willingly. She might have even enjoyed it! He didn't like that at all. How can somebody be stupid enough to do all of that? And after the car crash and the personality breakdown, she became even more of a lone wolf. So now that she has come for his help, he felt a lot more proud of himself.

He watched her fists tighten at her sides. He knew how much she didn't want to open her mouth and say it, which made it more satisfying.

"Atobe…"

"Ha~? Is that how you address—"

"ATOBE-SAN!"

Natsumi raised her voice, agitated. She glared at his smirk and continued. "Will you sponsor the Endou Corporation? Until I am old enough to take over?"

"And if I say no?"

"Then I have no reason to be here." Natsumi turned toward the exit.

"Stop! Can't you take a joke?"

"Joke?" Natsumi turned around again, with a sneaky smile on her face. "The Atobe I knew never made jokes like that~"

Atobe was at a loss of words. He felt that this conversation happened some time ago, but he shook that idea from his head. Something's different about this girl. Again.

"Well? In turn for this favor, are you going to show some form of appreciation?"

"I suppose I can say, _thank you. _Other than that I don't have much to give you. I can owe you a big favor in the future if you want."

"No, that's fine, I don't want to seem like the bad guy taking things from someone going bankrupt." Atobe massaged his temple with his fingers. He knew that it's impossible to have a serious conversation with Natsumi, but he always end up digging his own grave.

"Then you shouldn't have bothered asking. Now you look like a dumb bad guy."

"Endou Natsumi… there's a limit of how much rudeness I can take…" Atobe's temple thumped some more from Natsumi's words. But in the end, he can only sigh. "You know, Endou… you can come to our practice more often. Jirou and the other kids won't stop whining, and that dumb sister of his doesn't know how to do anything."

Natsumi stared at Atobe's face for a while, and gave him an understanding smile. "Don't be shy about caring for your teammates. That's not cute at all."

"You're the one that's not cute."

"It only matters if Shishido-senpai thinks I'm cute," Natsumi reached into her pocket, and took out a stack of tickets. "These aren't much, but I wanted to give it to you guys anyway. Seigaku's culture festival is next week. Make sure you and your team come to have fun."

"You think that these tickets can make up for everything I'm doing for you?" Atobe said, but taking the tickets from her hand anyway. "Hyoutei has its own culture festival, you know? And quite an extraordinary one, too, compared to Seigaku."

"We'll see about that," Natsumi moved toward the exit again, waving her hand casually. "Don't forget, go to the event in the quad that starts at noon!"

Atobe watched the girl leave. The sound of Jirou's voice immediately became audible as she closed the door, and a loud thump followed. For once, Atobe was a little jealous of Jirou for being so carefree about everything.

* * *

The culture festival is always one of the most anticipated events for students everywhere. Even though they have to stay afterschool to prepare for their class or club's event, they all have fun together. For someone as unenthusiastic as Natsumi, she actually has been secretly excited about this festival. It was going to be the first time for her to step on a big stage with Four Leaf. She didn't feel nervous; she was ready to perform. What makes her excited the most was that Shishido was going to be in the audience. She wanted to show off. She wanted to do her best.

The clock soon hit twelve o'clock, after waiting for what felt like years. Natsumi picked up her acoustic guitar; one that she found in her father's study. She felt a hand on her shoulder.

"You ready, Endou?" Okada smiled at her with perfect ease. He had confidence in all of his band members.

Natsumi nodded, and exchanged glances with Kigawa and Funegoshi. They both smiled and they all moved behind the curtain. The sun blazed above them and made the stage heated. Natsumi narrowed her eyes, trying to make out how many people were in the audience. The whole area seemed practically full. She wondered where Shishido was standing.

The curtain began to raise. She closed her eyes briefly and breathed a slow breath. When she opened her eyes again, the crowd was cheering loudly. Her gaze moved toward the back left, and saw the boy that she was waiting for. She smiled brightly as Okada's guitar began behind her, followed by Kigawa's drums and Funegoshi's bass.

"_The wind blows across the playground, sighing through a small window. Although my expectations have become unpleasant and lonely, yet I don't plan on giving up—_"

Natsumi's raw voice came out a little shaky in the beginning, but became steady as she played her own guitar louder. She found her own pace, and dived right into it.

"Hey! Hey, Oishi, look! It's Natsumi-chan!" a certain redhead jumped up and down from the audience, hitting his best friend's back excitedly.

Oishi, on the other hand, didn't mind Kikumaru's abusive excitement. "It's nice to see that she's all better now…"

He looked at the singer on the stage with a small smile. Even though not many people in Seigaku knew about what happened to Natsumi, but words somehow spread to Oishi's ears. He was worried about how she was going to take care of herself, but it looked like she's doing just fine.

"Looks like you've moved even further, haven't you, Endou…?"

"_My dream still didn't have any words. No one wanted to say anything to hurt me. Although wanting to know made me cry at night—"_

Natsumi sang as loud as she could so that she couldn't feel the hot feeling behind her eyes, nose, and throat. She couldn't help feeling emotional. After this festival, who knows if Four Leaf will ever perform again? The other third years will be busy preparing for their high school entrance exams, and she will have to get on top of things as well.

"Eh? Endou-kun, you want to go into business and economics in high school?" was Koike-sensei's astonished reply after she told him what her plans were. However, he didn't discourage her, but gave her real encouragements. "It will be difficult for sure. But since you have already made up your mind, I'm sure you're ready for anything ahead of you!"

"_I didn't look back, from that point on. Because it was me, I could do it—"_

"Uwahhhh! Natsumi-chan is soooo cool!" Jirou stood on his tiptoes and waved wildly at the stage, hoping to get Natsumi's attention.

"Jirou-senpai, you'll block the other people in the back!" Ohtori tried to pull Jirou's arms down.

"Che… just an amateur performance…" Atobe commented.

Oshitari looked at Atobe from the corner of his eyes, and then at Natsumi, and then back to Atobe. He smirked and said cunningly, "But compared to the Endou Natsumi we knew before… don't you think she turned much cuter?"

Atobe pursed his lips, and continued to watch the show with an annoyed look on his face.

"Maybe… just a little bit…" he murmured.

"_I don't want to become a hindrance. I want to know if there is a solution to always be free—"_

Two days ago, Natsumi received a package from Fukuoka. It was a gift from Mrs. Aogi after she'd sent a thank you card over. Natsumi opened it eagerly and found a bag of sunflower seeds inside. Delighted, Natsumi stopped all of her servants' work to plant them together. Even though Sasaki-san said that there's not enough space in the garden to put the sunflowers, Natsumi insisted on planting them. In the end, they planted them in the front yard. Isono-san was horrified to see the dirt all turned over when he got back from the company.

"Now we just have to wait until the sunflowers bloom!" Natsumi said, smiling brightly. "Wouldn't it be nice to see them every morning when you walk out of the door?"

"_My dreams could no longer be broken. Waiting all these seasons, I began to walk. The time I spent looking down will be restored. To realize my dreams, to strongly believe that my generation can change—"_

The interlude began and Okada's guitar solo took over. Natsumi backed away from the microphone and took small quick breaths. She could feel sweat running down her face. And all she could hear was the crowd cheering and the music behind her. For a second, she felt like she was the only quiet one in the world.

She had been thinking all this time. Ever since she stepped on that train to Fukuoka, she had already been thinking about what she was going to do. When Sasaki-san yelled at her, she realized how much trouble she has been causing everyone. All the people whom she cared about have been putting up with her childishness. And yet, she was too stubborn to admit her faults. She was too proud, but she didn't want to be alone.

She thought about this over and over. No matter how much she disliked it, she would have to grow up one day. And even though Peter Pan is going to be a child forever, she wasn't going to be jealous of that. Maybe it's not that Peter Pan won't grow up, it's because he can't grow up.

And because he can't grow up, he won't know how to love someone.

"_It was only the weakness in me that couldn't realize the words of my dream—"_

Natsumi looked over toward Shishido's direction from time to time. Every time she looked, her heart would pound faster. When she smiles, he would smile. It was the day that she met him, that she stopped sulking over her new life as Endou Natsumi.

Just before the performance started, she received a text message from Shishido.

"I got back into the regulars. All the best to your show."

"_Sixteen, my dream—"_

* * *

The show was over but the crowd was still cheering. As the curtains closed, the members of Four Leaf exchanged satisfied glances. Natsumi gave each one of them a high-five. Believing that they will all remember this day for the rest of their lives, she said her good-bye and got off the stage. Swinging her guitar bag over her shoulder, she started running through the people. The people whom she passed by said congratulations to her and cheered her on, but she felt like those were all distant from her. The only thing she could think about was her destination—the school entrance.

She pushed through the audience in the quad, squeezed through the ocean of people lined up at the foods and games stands. As she neared the school entrance, she saw the boy with the blue cap leaning on the gate. She smiled through big breaths and called out his name. The boy looked up and returned the same smile. She ran toward him with her arms open wide.

She leapt up in the air, knowing that the boy would catch her.

Today is going to be their first date. Today is going to be the start of a new story.

* * *

A/N: Hello, everyone! Thank you for reading until the end of this story! It took quite a long time due to my busy schedule, but it has finally come to an end. I hope that you all enjoyed this story! I hope to see you guys again when I write other Prince of Tennis stories in the future!


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